Hervey virus: Study on co-circulation with Henipaviruses in Pteropid bats within their distribution range from Australia to Africa

PLoS One. 2018 Feb 1;13(2):e0191933. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0191933. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

In 2011, an unusually large number of independent Hendra virus outbreaks were recorded on horse properties in Queensland and New South Wales, Australia. Urine from bat colonies adjacent to the outbreak sites were sampled and screened for Hendra and other viruses. Several novel paramyxoviruses were also isolated at different locations. Here one of the novel viruses, named Hervey virus (HerPV), is fully characterized by genome sequencing, annotation, phylogeny and in vitro host range, and its serological cross-reactivity and neutralization patterns are examined. HerPV may have ecological and spatial and temporal patterns similar to Hendra virus and could serve as a sentinel virus for the surveillance of this highly pathogenic virus. The suitability of HerPV as potential sentinel virus is further assessed by determining the serological prevalence of HerPV antibodies in fruit-eating bats from Australia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania and the Gulf of Guinea, indicating the presence of similar viruses in regions beyond the Australian border.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Africa / epidemiology
  • Animals
  • Antibodies, Viral / immunology
  • Australia / epidemiology
  • Cell Line
  • Chiroptera / virology*
  • Disease Outbreaks
  • Henipavirus / genetics
  • Henipavirus / immunology
  • Henipavirus / isolation & purification*
  • Henipavirus Infections / epidemiology
  • Henipavirus Infections / virology
  • High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing
  • Indonesia / epidemiology
  • Microscopy, Confocal
  • Neutralization Tests
  • Papua New Guinea / epidemiology
  • Paramyxovirinae / genetics
  • Paramyxovirinae / immunology
  • Paramyxovirinae / isolation & purification*

Substances

  • Antibodies, Viral

Grants and funding

This research was partially funded by CSIRO appropriation funds, a German-Australian Mobility Call Grant (RI 17.5 and BMBF 01DR14007) to L-FW and CK; and the Australian Queensland and New South Wales Governments through a National Hendra Virus Research Program Grant (NHeVRP_05) to HF. L-FW is supported in part by a National Research Foundation grant (NRF2012NRF-CRP001-056) in Singapore. CK was supported as a visiting scientist at AAHL in 2012 by a fellowship from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.