US Geological Survey, National Wildlife Health Center, 6006 Schroeder Rd., Madison, Wisconsin 53711, USA.
Poxvirus and Rabies Branch, Division of High-Consequence Pathogens and Pathology, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Rd., Atlanta, Georgia 30329, USA.
J Wildl Dis. 2020 Jan;56(1):197-202. Epub 2019 Jul 11.
An outbreak of rabies occurred in a captive colony of wild-caught big brown bats (). Five of 27 bats exhibited signs of rabies virus infection 22-51 d after capture or 18-22 d after contact with the index case. Rabid bats showed weight loss, aggression, increased vocalization, hypersalivation, and refusal of food. Antigenic typing and virus sequencing confirmed that all five bats were infected with an identical rabies virus variant that circulates in in the US. Two bats with no signs of rabies virus infection were seropositive for rabies virus-neutralizing antibodies; the brains of these bats had no detectable viral proteins by the direct fluorescence antibody test. We suspect bat-to-bat transmission of rabies virus occurred among our bats because all rabies-infected bats were confined to the cage housing the index case and were infected with viruses having identical sequences of the entire rabies nucleoprotein gene. This outbreak illustrates the risk of rabies virus infection in captive bats and highlights the need for researchers using bats to assume that all wild bats could be infected with rabies virus.
一起野生捕获的大褐蝙蝠（）圈养种群暴发狂犬病。在捕获后 22-51 天或与首例接触后 18-22 天，27 只蝙蝠中有 5 只出现狂犬病病毒感染迹象。患病蝙蝠表现出体重减轻、攻击性增强、发声增加、过度流涎和拒食。抗原分型和病毒测序证实，所有 5 只蝙蝠均感染了一种在美国流行的相同狂犬病病毒变异株。2 只未出现狂犬病病毒感染迹象的蝙蝠对狂犬病病毒中和抗体呈血清阳性；直接荧光抗体试验未检测到这些蝙蝠大脑中有可检测到的病毒蛋白。我们怀疑狂犬病病毒在我们的蝙蝠之间发生了蝙蝠间传播，因为所有感染狂犬病的蝙蝠都被限制在首例感染蝙蝠所在的笼子中，并且感染的病毒具有整个狂犬病核蛋白基因完全相同的序列。此次暴发说明了圈养蝙蝠感染狂犬病病毒的风险，并强调了使用蝙蝠的研究人员应假定所有野生蝙蝠都可能感染狂犬病病毒。
