Alpha and lineage C betaCoV infections in Italian bats.
AlphaCoV and lineage C betaCoV, genetically similar to those identified in Spanish related bat species, have been detected in Italian Myotis blithii and Eptesicus serotinus, respectively, out of 75 anal swabs collected from Vespertilionidae between 2009 and 2012. Sequence analysis of the 816-bp obtained RdRp sequence fragment indicates a 96.9 % amino acid identity of the Italian lineage C betaCoV with the recent Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV, Genbank accession number KF192507). This is the first documented occurrence of a lineage C betaCoV in the Italian bat population, notably in E. serotinus.
OIE Collaborating Centre for Diseases at the Animal-Human Interface, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie, Viale dell'Università 10, 35020, Legnaro, Padova, Italy, pdebenedictis@izsvenezie.it.
Paola
P
De Benedictis
Sabrina
S
Marciano
Dino
D
Scaravelli
Pamela
P
Priori
Barbara
B
Zecchin
Ilaria
I
Capua
Isabella
I
Monne
Giovanni
G
Cattoli
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002685:Chiroptera / Q000821:virology*; D017934:Coronavirus / Q000145:classification*; D018352:Coronavirus Infections / Q000821:virology*; D007558:Italy; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid