Studies of reservoir hosts for Marburg virus.
To determine reservoir hosts for Marburg virus (MARV), we examined the fauna of a mine in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The mine was associated with a protracted outbreak of Marburg hemorrhagic fever during 1998-2000. We found MARV nucleic acid in 12 bats, comprising 3.0%-3.6% of 2 species of insectivorous bat and 1 species of fruit bat. We found antibody to the virus in the serum of 9.7% of 1 of the insectivorous species and in 20.5% of the fruit bat species, but attempts to isolate virus were unsuccessful.
Swanepoel
Robert
R
National Institute for Communicable Diseases, Sandringham, Republic of South Africa. bobs@nicd.ac.za
Smit
Sheilagh B
SB
Rollin
Pierre E
PE
Formenty
Pierre
P
Leman
Patricia A
PA
Kemp
Alan
A
Burt
Felicity J
FJ
Grobbelaar
Antoinette A
AA
Croft
Janice
J
Bausch
Daniel G
DG
Zeller
Hervé
H
Leirs
Herwig
H
Braack
L E O
LE
Libande
Modeste L
ML
Zaki
Sherif
S
Nichol
Stuart T
ST
Ksiazek
Thomas G
TG
Paweska
Janusz T
JT
D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000032:analysis / Q000276:immunology; D002685:Chiroptera / Q000145:classification / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology*; D015023:Democratic Republic of the Congo; D029024:Marburgvirus / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D008906:Mining; D010802:Phylogeny; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification
D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D012367:RNA, Viral