1887

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Volume 103, Issue 8

Detection of filovirus-reactive antibodies in Australian bat species Open Access

Abstract

Bats have been implicated as the reservoir hosts of filoviruses in Africa, with serological evidence of filoviruses in various bat species identified in other countries. Here, serum samples from 190 bats, comprising 12 different species, collected in Australia were evaluated for filovirus antibodies. An in-house indirect microsphere assay to detect antibodies that cross-react with Ebola virus (; EBOV) nucleoprotein (NP) followed by an immunofluorescence assay (IFA) were used to confirm immunoreactivity to EBOV and Reston virus (; RESTV). We found 27 of 102 Yinpterochiroptera and 19 of 88 Yangochiroptera samples were positive to EBOV NP in the microsphere assay. Further testing of these NP positive samples by IFA revealed nine bat sera that showed binding to ebolavirus-infected cells. This is the first report of filovirus-reactive antibodies detected in Australian bat species and suggests that novel filoviruses may be circulating in Australian bats.

  • Received:
  • Accepted:
  • Published Online:
Keyword(s): Australia , bats , filovirus and serology
Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • csiro
    • Principle Award Recipient: JenniferAnne Barr
© 2022 Crown Copyright
  • This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License. This article was made open access via a Publish and Read agreement between the Microbiology Society and the corresponding author’s institution.
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/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/jgv.0.001785
2022-08-16
2024-05-05
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Detection of filovirus-reactive antibodies in Australian bat species
J. Gen. Virol. 103, 001785 (2022); https://doi.org/10.1099/jgv.0.001785
/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/jgv.0.001785
/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/jgv.0.001785
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