TY - GEN A1 - Schatz, Juliane A1 - Ohlendorf, Bernd A1 - Busse, Peter A1 - Pelz, Gerrit A1 - Dolch, Dietrich A1 - Teubner, Jens A1 - Encarnacao, Jorge A. A1 - Mühle, Ralf-Udo A1 - Fischer, M. A1 - Hoffmann, Bernd A1 - Kwasnitschka, Linda A1 - Balkema-Buschmann, Anne A1 - Mettenleiter, Thomas Christoph A1 - Müller, T. A1 - Freuling, Conrad M. T1 - Twenty years of active bat rabies surveillance in Germany BT - a detailed analysis and future perspectives T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - In Germany, active bat rabies surveillance was conducted between 1993 and 2012. A total of 4546 oropharyngeal swab samples from 18 bat species were screened for the presence of EBLV-1- , EBLV-2- and BBLV-specific RNA. Overall, 0 center dot 15% of oropharyngeal swab samples tested EBLV-1 positive, with the majority originating from Eptesicus serotinus. Interestingly, out of seven RT-PCR-positive oropharyngeal swabs subjected to virus isolation, viable virus was isolated from a single serotine bat (E. serotinus). Additionally, about 1226 blood samples were tested serologically, and varying virus neutralizing antibody titres were found in at least eight different bat species. The detection of viral RNA and seroconversion in repeatedly sampled serotine bats indicates long-term circulation of the virus in a particular bat colony. The limitations of random-based active bat rabies surveillance over passive bat rabies surveillance and its possible application of targeted approaches for future research activities on bat lyssavirus dynamics and maintenance are discussed. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 533 KW - Bat rabies KW - epidemiology KW - lyssavirus KW - surveillance Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-415140 SN - 1866-8364 IS - 533 ER - 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 -