Serological evidence of ebolavirus infection in bats, China.
BACKGROUND
The genus Ebolavirus of the family Filoviridae currently consists of five species. All species, with the exception of Reston ebolavirus, have been found in Africa and caused severe human diseases. Bats have been implicated as reservoirs for ebolavirus. Reston ebolavirus, discovered in the Philippines, is the only ebolavirus species identified in Asia to date. Whether this virus is prevalent in China is unknown.


RESULTS
In this study, we developed an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for ebolavirus using the recombinant nucleocapsid protein and performed sero-surveillance for the virus among Chinese bat populations. Our results revealed the presence of antibodies to ebolavirus in 32 of 843 bat sera samples and 10 of 16 were further confirmed by western blot analysis.


CONCLUSIONS
To our knowledge, this is the first report of any filovirus infection in China.
State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology-Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, Hubei 430071, P R China.
Junfa
J
Yuan
Yuji
Y
Zhang
Jialu
J
Li
Yunzhi
Y
Zhang
Lin-Fa
LF
Wang
Zhengli
Z
Shi
D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood*; D002681:China; D002685:Chiroptera; D029043:Ebolavirus / Q000276:immunology*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000379:methods; D019142:Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola / Q000662:veterinary*; D019590:Nucleocapsid Proteins; D011994:Recombinant Proteins
D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D019590:Nucleocapsid Proteins; D011994:Recombinant Proteins