title: Isolation of Irkut virus from a Murina leucogaster bat in China.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Bats are recognized as a major reservoir of lyssaviruses; however, no bat lyssavirus has been isolated in Asia except for Aravan and Khujand virus in Central Asia. All Chinese lyssavirus isolates in previous reports have been of species rabies virus, mainly from dogs. Following at least two recent bat-associated human rabies-like cases in northeast China, we have initiated a study of the prevalence of lyssaviruses in bats in Jilin province and their public health implications. A bat lyssavirus has been isolated and its pathogenicity in mice and genomic alignment have been determined.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We report the first isolation of a bat lyssavirus in China, from the brain of a northeastern bat, Murina leucogaster. Its nucleoprotein gene shared 92.4%/98.9% (nucleotide) and 92.2%/98.8% (amino acid) identity with the two known Irkut virus isolates from Russia, and was designated IRKV-THChina12. Following intracranial and intramuscular injection, IRKV-THChina12 produced rabies-like symptoms in adult mice with a short inoculation period and high mortality. Nucleotide sequence analysis showed that IRKV-THChina12 has the same genomic organization as other lyssaviruses and its isolation provides an independent origin for the species IRKV.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We have identified the existence of a bat lyssavirus in a common Chinese bat species. Its high pathogenicity in adult mice suggests that public warnings and medical education regarding bat bites in China should be increased, and that surveillance be extended to provide a better understanding of Irkut virus ecology and its significance for public health.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Epidemiology and Key Laboratory of Jilin Province for Zoonosis Prevention and Control, Military Veterinary Research Institute, Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Jingyue Economy Development Zone, Changchun, China.
authors.forename: Ye
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Shoufeng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jinghui
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Rongliang
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000821:virology; D002681:China; D002685:Chiroptera / Q000821:virology*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D018114:Lyssavirus / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D011818:Rabies / Q000821:virology; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral