title: Epidemiology and pathogenicity of African bat lyssaviruses.
abstract: Lyssaviruses belonging to all four known African Lyssavirus genotypes (gts) have been reported and isolated from SouthAfrica over the past few decades. These are: (1) Duvenhage virus (gt4), isolated again in 2006 from a human fatality; (2) Mokola virus (gt3), isolated irregularly, mostly from cats; (3) Lagos bat virus (gt2) continually isolated over the past four years from Epomophorus fruit bats and from incidental terrestrial animals and (4) Rabies virus (gt1) - with two virus biotypes endemic in mongoose and in canid species (mostly domestic dogs, jackals and bat-eared foxes), respectively. Only two of these are associated with bats in Southern Africa, viz. Duvenhage virus and Lagos bat virus (gts 4 and 2). For both these genotypes the authors have embarked on a programme of comparative study of molecular epidemiology. Duvenhage virus nucleoprotein nucleotide sequence analysis indicated a very low nucleotide diversity even though isolates were isolated decades apart. In contrast, individual isolates of Lagos bat virus were found to differ significantly with respectto nucleoprotein gene nucleotide sequence diversity as well as in pathogenicity profiles.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, University of Pretoria, South Africa.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Markotter
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Van Eeden
authors.forename: I V
authors.initials: IV
authors.lastname: Kuzmin
authors.forename: C E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Rupprecht
authors.forename: J T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Paweska
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Swanepoel
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Fooks
authors.forename: C T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Sabeta
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cliquet
authors.forename: L H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Nel
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild / Q000821:virology; D001483:Base Sequence; D002685:Chiroptera / Q000821:virology; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D018114:Lyssavirus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000472:pathogenicity; D017720:Molecular Epidemiology / Q000379:methods; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009698:Nucleoproteins / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D018353:Rhabdoviridae Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D009698:Nucleoproteins