National Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, M.C. Rubino, Ruta 8 km 17.500, Montevideo, Uruguay.
Virus Res. 2013 May;173(2):415-20. doi: 10.1016/j.virusres.2012.12.013. Epub 2013 Jan 11.
After 25 years without any reported cases of rabies in Uruguay, the northern region of the country experienced an epizootic of bovine paralytic rabies in October 2007. The outbreak affected bovines and equines, and the main source of infection was the bat Desmodus rotundus, the only hematophagous species in the country. From October 2007 to July 2008, 42 bovine, 3 equine and 120 chiropteran samples were submitted to the National Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory for rabies testing. A total of 12 samples (7 bovine, 2 equine and 3 from D. rotundus) were positive by the fluorescent antibody test, and viruses were isolated by the mouse inoculation test. The objective of this study was to compare the antigenic and genetic characteristics of these isolates and three isolates from insectivorous bats from other regions. Antigenic typing using a panel of eight monoclonal antibodies identified all 12 viruses as variant 3 (AgV3), a variant associated with D. rotundus. Two isolates from insectivorous bats (Tadarida brasiliensis and Molossus sp.) were characterized as antigenic variant 4 (AgV4) while the third, from Myotis sp., could not be characterized using this panel as its reactivity pattern did not match that of any of the known antigenic variants. Partial N-gene sequences (nt 149-1420) of these isolates were aligned with homologous sequences derived from GenBank by the CLUSTAL/W method and used to build a neighbor-joining distance tree with the Kimura 2-parameter model. All 12 isolates were genetically grouped into the D. rotundus cluster as they shared 100% identity. In the phylogenetic analysis, the three isolates from insectivorous bats segregated into three clusters: one related to T. brasiliensis, one to Myotis sp. and the other to Lasiurus sp., although the isolate associated with the latter came from a Molossus sp. specimen. These results indicate that AgV3 was associated with the outbreak of bovine paralytic rabies in Uruguay. This is the first report of rabies virus having been detected in non-hematophagous bats in this country.
在乌拉圭 25 年没有报告狂犬病病例后，该国北部地区于 2007 年 10 月爆发了牛麻痹性狂犬病疫情。疫情影响了牛和马，主要感染源是蝙蝠 Desmodus rotundus，这是该国唯一的吸血物种。从 2007 年 10 月到 2008 年 7 月，国家兽医诊断实验室收到了 42 份牛、3 份马和 120 份蝙蝠样本进行狂犬病检测。共有 12 份样本（7 份牛、2 份马和 3 份来自 D. rotundus）通过荧光抗体试验呈阳性，并用小鼠接种试验分离出病毒。本研究的目的是比较这些分离株与来自其他地区食虫蝙蝠的 3 个分离株的抗原和遗传特征。使用一组 8 种单克隆抗体进行抗原分型，确定所有 12 种病毒均为变异 3（AgV3），这种变异与 D. rotundus 有关。来自食虫蝙蝠（Tadarida brasiliensis 和 Molossus sp.）的两个分离株被鉴定为抗原变异 4（AgV4），而第三个来自 Myotis sp.的分离株则不能使用该小组进行鉴定，因为其反应模式与任何已知的抗原变异都不匹配。用 CLUSTAL/W 方法对这些分离株的部分 N 基因序列（nt 149-1420）与 GenBank 中同源序列进行了比对，并使用 Kimura 2-参数模型构建了一个邻接距离树。所有 12 个分离株在遗传上都归为 D. rotundus 聚类，因为它们共享 100%的同一性。在系统发育分析中，来自食虫蝙蝠的三个分离株分为三个聚类：一个与 T. brasiliensis 相关，一个与 Myotis sp.相关，另一个与 Lasiurus sp.相关，尽管与后者相关的分离株来自 Molossus sp.标本。这些结果表明，AgV3 与乌拉圭牛麻痹性狂犬病疫情有关。这是该国首次报告在非吸血蝙蝠中检测到狂犬病病毒。
