Epidemiology and Molecular Characterization of Rotavirus A in Fruit Bats in Bangladesh

AbstractRotavirus A (RVA) is the primary cause of acute dehydrating diarrhea in human and numerous animal species. Animal-to-human interspecies transmission is one of the evolutionary mechanisms driving rotavirus strain diversity in humans. We screened fresh feces from 416 bats (201Pteropus medius, 165Rousettus leschenaultii and 50Taphozous melanopogon) for RVA using rRT-PCR. We detected a prevalence of 7% (95% CI 3.5 –10.8) and 2% (95% CI 0.4–5.2) inP. medius andR. leschenaultii, respectively. We did not detect RVA in the insectivorous bat (T. melanopogon). We identified RVA strains similar to the human strains of G1 and G8 based on sequence-based genotyping, which underscores the importance of including wildlife species in surveillance for zoonotic pathogens to understand pathogen transmission and evolution better.
Source: EcoHealth - Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research