Serological Evidence of Lyssaviruses among Bats on Southwestern Indian Ocean Islands

Julien Mélade; Stewart McCulloch; Beza Ramasindrazana; Erwan Lagadec; Magali Turpin; Hervé Pascalis; Steven M Goodman; Wanda Markotter; Koussay Dellagi

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0160553

Serological Evidence of Lyssaviruses among Bats on Southwestern Indian Ocean Islands

PLoS One. 2016 Aug 8;11(8):e0160553. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0160553. eCollection 2016.

Authors

Julien Mélade^{1

2

3}, Stewart McCulloch⁴, Beza Ramasindrazana^{1

2

3

5

6}, Erwan Lagadec^{1

2

3}, Magali Turpin^{1

2

3}, Hervé Pascalis^{1

2

3}, Steven M Goodman^{5

7}, Wanda Markotter⁴, Koussay Dellagi^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Centre de Recherche et de Veille sur les Maladies Emergentes dans l'Océan Indien (CRVOI), Plateforme de Recherche CYROI, Sainte Clotilde, La Réunion, France.
² Université de La Réunion, UMR PIMIT «Processus Infectieux en Milieu Insulaire Tropical», INSERM U1187, CNRS 9192, IRD 249. Plateforme de Recherche CYROI, Saint Denis, La Réunion, France.
³ Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), Sainte-Clotilde, La Réunion, France.
⁴ Center for Viral Zoonoses, Department of Medical Virology, School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.
⁵ Association Vahatra, Antananarivo, Madagascar.
⁶ Institut Pasteur de Madagascar, Antananarivo, Madagascar.
⁷ Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.

Abstract

We provide serological evidence of lyssavirus circulation among bats on southwestern Indian Ocean (SWIO) islands. A total of 572 bats belonging to 22 species were collected on Anjouan, Mayotte, La Réunion, Mauritius, Mahé and Madagascar and screened by the Rapid Fluorescent Focus Inhibition Test for the presence of neutralising antibodies against the two main rabies related lyssaviruses circulating on the African continent: Duvenhage lyssavirus (DUVV) and Lagos bat lyssavirus (LBV), representing phylogroups I and II, respectively. A total of 97 and 42 sera were able to neutralise DUVV and LBV, respectively. No serum neutralised both DUVV and LBV but most DUVV-seropositive bats (n = 32/220) also neutralised European bat lyssavirus 1 (EBLV-1) but not Rabies lyssavirus (RABV), the prototypic lyssavirus of phylogroup I. These results highlight that lyssaviruses belonging to phylogroups I and II circulate in regional bat populations and that the putative phylogroup I lyssavirus is antigenically closer to DUVV and EBLV-1 than to RABV. Variation between bat species, roost sites and bioclimatic regions were observed. All brain samples tested by RT-PCR specific for lyssavirus RNA were negative.

MeSH terms

Animals
Antibodies, Neutralizing
Chiroptera / virology*
Disease Reservoirs
Indian Ocean Islands
Lyssavirus / genetics
Lyssavirus / immunology
Lyssavirus / isolation & purification*
Rhabdoviridae Infections / veterinary
Seroepidemiologic Studies

Substances

Antibodies, Neutralizing

Grants and funding

This work was supported by funding from CRVOI and from the European Regional Development Funds FEDER POCT “Pathogènes associés à la Faune Sauvage Océan Indien” project (N° 31189), and FEDER-POCT ParamyxOI project (N° 33857), as well as the National Research Foundation, South Africa (UID 91496, and 85786). Sampling on Mayotte was supported by ECOSAN/CNRS-INEE “Batman”. B. Ramasindrazana’s postdoctoral fellowship at CRVOI was funded by “RUN-Emerge, European Commission FP7 Regpot Capacity program”, the “Fonds de Coopération régionale, Prefecture de La Réunion”, and The Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, through the Dr. Ralph and Marian Falk Medical Research Trust.