TY  - JOUR
A1  - Schatz, Juliane
A1  - Freuling, Conrad Martin
A1  - Auer, Ernst
A1  - Goharriz, Hooman
A1  - Harbusch, Christine
A1  - Johnson, Nicholas
A1  - Kaipf, Ingrid
A1  - Mettenleiter, Thomas Christoph
A1  - Muehldorder, Kristin
A1  - Muehle, Ralf-Udo
A1  - Ohlendorf, Bernd
A1  - Pott-Dörfer, Bärbel
A1  - Prueger, Julia
A1  - Ali, Hanan Sheikh
A1  - Stiefel, Dagmar
A1  - Teubner, Jens
A1  - Ulrich, Rainer Günter
A1  - Wibbelt, Gudrun
A1  - Müller, Thomas
T1  - Enhanced passive bat rabies surveillance in indigenous bat species from Germany - A retrospective study
JF  - PLoS neglected tropical diseases
N2  - In Germany, rabies in bats is a notifiable zoonotic disease, which is caused by European bat lyssaviruses type 1 and 2 (EBLV-1 and 2), and the recently discovered new lyssavirus species Bokeloh bat lyssavirus (BBLV). As the understanding of bat rabies in insectivorous bat species is limited, in addition to routine bat rabies diagnosis, an enhanced passive surveillance study, i.e. the retrospective investigation of dead bats that had not been tested for rabies, was initiated in 1998 to study the distribution, abundance and epidemiology of lyssavirus infections in bats from Germany. A total number of 5478 individuals representing 21 bat species within two families were included in this study. The Noctule bat (Nyctalus noctula) and the Common pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pipistrellus) represented the most specimens submitted. Of all investigated bats, 1.17% tested positive for lyssaviruses using the fluorescent antibody test (FAT). The vast majority of positive cases was identified as EBLV-1, predominately associated with the Serotine bat (Eptesicus serotinus). However, rabies cases in other species, i.e. Nathusius' pipistrelle bat (Pipistrellus nathusii), P. pipistrellus and Brown long-eared bat (Plecotus auritus) were also characterized as EBLV-1. In contrast, EBLV-2 was isolated from three Daubenton's bats (Myotis daubentonii). These three cases contribute significantly to the understanding of EBLV-2 infections in Germany as only one case had been reported prior to this study. This enhanced passive surveillance indicated that besides known reservoir species, further bat species are affected by lyssavirus infections. Given the increasing diversity of lyssaviruses and bats as reservoir host species worldwide, lyssavirus positive specimens, i.e. both bat and virus need to be confirmed by molecular techniques.
Y1  - 2014
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0002835
SN  - 1935-2735
VL  - 8
IS  - 5
PB  - PLoS
CY  - San Fransisco
ER  -