Genetic diversity of coronaviruses in bats in Lao PDR and Cambodia.

Genetic diversity of coronaviruses in bats in Lao PDR and Cambodia. Infect Genet Evol. 2016 Dec 05;: Authors: Lacroix A, Duong V, Hul V, San S, Davun H, Omaliss K, Chea S, Hassanin A, Theppangna W, Silithammavong S, Khammavong K, Singhalath S, Greatorex Z, Fine AE, Goldstein T, Olson S, Joly DO, Keatts L, Dussart P, Afelt A, Frutos R, Buchy P Abstract South-East Asia is a hot spot for emerging zoonotic diseases, and bats have been recognized as hosts for a large number of zoonotic viruses such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), responsible for acute respiratory syndrome outbreaks. Thus, it is important to expand our knowledge of the presence of viruses in bats which could represent a risk to humans. Coronaviruses (CoVs) have been reported in bat species from Thailand, China, Indonesia, Taiwan and the Philippines. However no such work was conducted in Cambodia or Lao PDR. Between 2010 and 2013, 1965 bats were therefore sampled at interfaces with human populations in these two countries. They were tested for the presence of coronavirus by consensus reverse transcription-PCR assay. A total of 93 samples (4.7%) from 17 genera of bats tested positive. Sequence analysis revealed the presence of potentially 37 and 56 coronavirus belonging to alpha-coronavirus (αCoV) and beta-CoV (βCoV), respectively. The βCoVs group is known to include some coronaviruses highly pathogenic to human, such as SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. All coronavirus...
Source: Infection, Genetics and Evolution - Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Tags: Infect Genet Evol Source Type: research