Iglesias Rachel, Cox-Witton Keren, Field Hume, Skerratt Lee F, Barrett Janine
Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia.
Wildlife Health Australia, Sydney, NSW 2088, Australia.
Viruses. 2021 Jan 27;13(2):189. doi: 10.3390/v13020189.
Australian bat lyssavirus (ABLV) was first described in 1996 and has been regularly detected in Australian bats since that time. While the virus does not cause population level impacts in bats and has minimal impacts on domestic animals, it does pose a public health risk. For this reason, bats are monitored for ABLV and a national dataset is collated and maintained by Wildlife Health Australia. The 2010-2016 dataset was analysed using logistic regression and time-series analysis to identify predictors of infection status in bats and the factors associated with human exposure to bats. In common with previous passive surveillance studies, we found that little red flying-foxes () are more likely than other species to be infected with ABLV. In the four Australian mainland species of flying-fox, there are seasonal differences in infection risk that may be associated with reproductive cycles, with summer and autumn the seasons of greatest risk. The risk of human contact was also seasonal, with lower risk in winter. In line with other studies, we found that the circumstances in which the bat is encountered, such as exhibiting abnormal behaviour or being grounded, are risk factors for ABLV infection and human contact and should continue be key components of public health messaging. We also found evidence of biased recording of some types of information, which made interpretation of some findings more challenging. Strengthening of "One Health" linkages between public health and animal health services at the operational level could help overcome these biases in future, and greater harmonisation nationally would increase the value of the dataset.
澳大利亚蝙蝠狂犬病毒（ABLV）于1996年首次被描述，自那时起在澳大利亚蝙蝠中经常被检测到。虽然该病毒不会对蝙蝠种群数量产生影响，对家畜的影响也微乎其微，但它确实构成公共卫生风险。因此，对蝙蝠进行ABLV监测，澳大利亚野生动物健康组织整理并维护了一个全国性数据集。利用逻辑回归和时间序列分析对2010 - 2016年的数据集进行分析，以确定蝙蝠感染状况的预测因素以及与人类接触蝙蝠相关的因素。与之前的被动监测研究一样，我们发现小红狐蝠比其他物种更易感染ABLV。在澳大利亚大陆的四种狐蝠中，感染风险存在季节性差异，这可能与繁殖周期有关，夏季和秋季是风险最高的季节。人类接触的风险也具有季节性，冬季风险较低。与其他研究一致，我们发现遇到蝙蝠时的情况，如表现出异常行为或被困地面，是ABLV感染和人类接触的风险因素，应继续作为公共卫生信息的关键内容。我们还发现了某些类型信息记录存在偏差的证据，这使得对一些研究结果的解读更具挑战性。在操作层面加强公共卫生与动物卫生服务之间的“同一健康”联系，未来可能有助于克服这些偏差，全国范围内更大程度的协调将增加数据集的价值。
