Novel Betaherpesviruses in Neotropical Bats on the Caribbean Island of St. Kitts: First Report from Antillean Tree Bats () and Evidence for Cross-Species Transmission.

To date, limited information is available on herpesviruses in bats from the Caribbean region. We report here high detection rates (24.24%, n = 66) of herpesviruses in oral samples from apparently healthy bats ( (75%, 9/12) and (28%, 7/25)) on the Lesser Antillean Island of St. Kitts. Based on analysis of partial DNA polymerase (DPOL) sequences (~225 amino acid (aa) residues), we identified two distinct groups of herpesviruses (BO-I and -II) that were unique to and , respectively. Within the subfamily , the BO-I DPOL sequences shared low deduced aa identities (<70%) with other herpesviruses, and phylogenetically, they formed a distinct cluster, representing a putative novel betaherpesvirus. The BO-II DPOL sequences were closely related to a putative novel betaherpesvirus from a in Lesser Antillean Island of Martinique, indicating possible transmission of herpesviruses by bat movement between the Caribbean Islands. Phylogenetically, the BO-I and -II betaherpesviruses exhibited species-specific ( and , respectively) as well as family-specific ( and , respectively) clustering patterns, corroborating the hypothesis on host specificity of betaherpesviruses. Interestingly, a single betaherpesvirus strain clustered with the betaherpesviruses, indicating possible interspecies transmission of herpesviruses between and . To our knowledge, this is the first report on detection of herpesviruses from Antillean tree bats (), expanding the host range of betaherpesviruses. Taken together, the present study identified putative novel betaherpesviruses that might be unique to chiropteran species ( and , indicating virus-host coevolution, and provided evidence for interspecies transmission of betaherpesviruses between chiropteran families.