Golding Megan E, Wu Guanghui, Wilkie Rebekah, Picard-Meyer Evelyne, Servat Alexandre, Marston Denise A, Aegerter James N, Horton Daniel L, McElhinney Lorraine M
Department of Virology, Animal and Plant Health Agency, Woodham Lane, Addlestone KT15 3NB, United Kingdom.
Department of Comparative Biosciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey GU2 7XH, United Kingdom.
Virus Evol. 2024 Jul 29;10(1):veae060. doi: 10.1093/ve/veae060. eCollection 2024.
European bat lyssavirus 1 (EBLV-1, ) is predominantly detected in serotine bats () and is responsible for the majority of bat rabies cases in mainland Europe. A passive bat rabies surveillance scheme detected the virus in a serotine bat in the UK for the first time in October 2018. As of May 2024, 34 cases have been reported, 20 of which involved contact with an animal and 5 reported human contact. We investigated the emergence of EBLV-1 by undertaking comprehensive sequence analysis and Bayesian phylogenetics, based on complete virus genomes of 33 UK sequences and 108 sequences covering six countries in mainland Europe (1968-2023), including 21 French EBLV-1-positive RNA samples sequenced for this study. Sequence analysis revealed extreme similarity among UK EBLV-1 sequences (99.9%-100%), implying a single source of introduction rather than multiple independent introductions. Bayesian analysis revealed that the UK EBLV-1 sequences shared their most recent common ancestor with an EBLV-1 sequence from a serotine bat detected in Brittany, France, in 2001, with an estimated date of divergence of 1997. Within the UK sequences, the earliest divergence was estimated to occur in 2007. This study provides valuable insights into the molecular epidemiology of an emerging zoonotic pathogen and improved understanding of the risks posed to public and animal health.
欧洲蝙蝠狂犬病病毒1型（EBLV-1）主要在棕蝠中被检测到，并且是欧洲大陆大多数蝙蝠狂犬病病例的病因。一项被动蝙蝠狂犬病监测计划于2018年10月在英国的一只棕蝠中首次检测到该病毒。截至2024年5月，已报告34例病例，其中20例涉及与动物接触，5例报告与人类接触。我们通过进行全面的序列分析和贝叶斯系统发育分析，基于33个英国序列和覆盖欧洲大陆六个国家（1968 - 2023年）的108个序列的完整病毒基因组，包括为本研究测序的21份法国EBLV-1阳性RNA样本，来调查EBLV-1的出现情况。序列分析显示英国EBLV-1序列之间具有极高的相似性（99.9% - 100%），这意味着是单一引入源而非多个独立引入源。贝叶斯分析表明，英国EBLV-1序列与2001年在法国布列塔尼检测到的一只棕蝠的EBLV-1序列拥有最近的共同祖先，估计分歧时间为1997年。在英国序列中，最早的分歧估计发生在2007年。这项研究为一种新兴人畜共患病原体的分子流行病学提供了有价值的见解，并增进了对其对公众和动物健康所构成风险的理解。
