Richard D. Suu-Ire 1,2,3,7,*, Anthony R. Fooks 4,5, Ashley C. Banyard 4, David Selden 4, Kofi Amponsah-Mensah 1, Silke Riesle 1,6,7, Meyir Y. Ziekah 2,3, Yaa Ntiamoa-Baidu 1,
James L. N. Wood 6 and Andrew A. Cunningham 7,*
1 Department of Animal Biology and Conservation Science, University of Ghana, P.O. Box LG 571, Legon, Accra, Ghana; mak2kofi@gmail.com (K.A.-M.); sasr3@cam.ac.uk (S.R.); ynbaidu@ug.edu.gh (Y.N.-B.)
2 Veterinary Services Department, Ministry of Food and Agriculture, P. O. Box M 161, Accra, Ghana; meyir73@gmail.com
3 Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission, P.O. Box M239, Accra, Ghana
4 Wildlife Zoonoses and Vector-Borne Diseases Research Group, Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA),Weybridge, Woodham Lane, New Haw, Addlestone, Surrey KT15 3NB, UK;
tony.fooks@apha.gsi.gov.uk (A.R.F.); Ashley.Banyard@apha.gsi.gov.uk (A.C.B.); David.Selden@apha.gsi.gov.uk (D.S.)
5 Department of Clinical Infection, Microbiology & Immunology, Institute of Infection and Global Health, University of Liverpool, Liverpool LP69 7ZX, UK
6 Cambridge Infectious Diseases Consortium, Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road Cambridge CB3 0ES, Cambridge, UK; jlnw2@cam.ac.uk
7 Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, Regent’s Park, London NW1 4RY, UK
* Correspondence: suuire@gmail.com (R.D.S.-I.); A.Cunningham@ioz.ac.uk (A.A.C.); Tel.: +233-207347817 (R.D.S.-I.)
Abstract:
Bats are key species for ecological function, but they are also reservoirs of zoonotic agents, such as lyssaviruses that cause rabies. Little is known about the maintenance and transmission of lyssaviruses in bats, although the observation of clinically sick bats, both in experimental studies and wild bats, has at least demonstrated that lyssaviruses are capable of causing clinical disease in bat species. Despite this, extensive surveillance for diseased bats has not yielded lyssaviruses, whilst serological surveys demonstrate that bats must be exposed to lyssavirus without developing clinical disease. We hypothesize that there is endemic circulation of Lagos bat virus (LBV) in the straw-coloured fruit bat (Eidolon helvum) in Ghana, West Africa. To investigate this further, longitudinal blood sampling was undertaken quarterly between 2012 and 2014 on wild E. helvum at two sites in Ghana. Serum samples were collected and tested for LBV-neutralizing antibodies using a modified flourescent antibody virus neutralisation (FAVN) assay (n = 294) and brains from
moribund or dead bats were tested for antigen and viral RNA (n = 55). Overall, 44.7% of the 304 bats sampled had LBV-neutralising antibodies. None of the brain samples from bats contained lyssavirus antigen or RNA. Together with the results of an earlier serological study, our findings demonstrate that LBV is endemic and circulates within E. helvum in Ghana even though the detection of viral infection in dead bats was unsuccessful. Confirmation that LBV infection is endemic in E. helvum in Ghana is an important finding and indicates that the potential public health threats from LBV warrant further investigation.
Keywords: bat; rabies; Eidolon helvum; Lagos bat virus; seroprevalence; lyssavirus; Ghana
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