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. 2019 Mar;16(1):82-94.
doi: 10.1007/s10393-018-1387-5. Epub 2018 Dec 18.

Host Biology and Anthropogenic Factors Affect Hepadnavirus Infection in a Neotropical Bat

Thomas Hiller  1   2 , Andrea Rasche  3   4   5 , Stefan Dominik Brändel  6   7 , Alexander König  8   9   10 , Lara Jeworowski  11 , M Teague O'Mara  7   12   13 , Veronika Cottontail  6 , Rachel A Page  7 , Dieter Glebe  8   9   10 , Jan Felix Drexler  3   4   5   11 , Marco Tschapka  6   7
Affiliations

Host Biology and Anthropogenic Factors Affect Hepadnavirus Infection in a Neotropical Bat

Thomas Hiller et al. Ecohealth. 2019 Mar.

Abstract

The tent-making bat hepatitis B virus (TBHBV) is a hepadnavirus closely related to human hepatitis B virus. The ecology of TBHBV is unclear. We show that it is widespread and highly diversified in Peters' tent-making bats (Uroderma bilobatum) within Panama, while local prevalence varied significantly between sample sites, ranging from 0 to 14.3%. Females showed significantly higher prevalence than males, and pregnant females were more often acutely infected than non-reproductive ones. The distribution of TBHBV in bats was significantly affected by forest cover, with higher infection rates in areas with lower forest cover. Our data indicate that loss of natural habitat may lead to positive feedback on the biotic factors driving infection possibility. These results underline the necessity of multidisciplinary studies for a better understanding of mechanisms in pathogen-host relationships and for predictions in disease ecology.

Keywords: Bat; Habitat loss; Hepatitis B virus; Orthohepadnavirus; TBHBV; Uroderma bilobatum.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Sampling regions and prevalence of PCR-positive TBHBV infections in Uroderma bilobatum in Panama.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Analysis of non-synonymous nucleotide exchanges in 19 near-complete TBHBV genomes. The alignment comprises 2503 nucleotides of 15 novel TBHBV sequences and published sequences NC_024445, KC790379, KC790380, KC790381. For details on ORF position of amino acid exchanges, see Supplementary 1.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree of near-complete TBHBV genomes. A total of 2503 nucleotides were used for the analysis conducted in MEGA7. Bootstrap values (%) larger than 75 are shown. Novel sequences are indicated in red (Color figure online).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Predicted probabilities of TBHBV infection based on the Δ2 AICc candidate model set for the effects of a the reproductive status, proportion of forest cover and sex; and b same as a but including the proportion of forest cover loss as estimated constant over the whole prediction range (see also Table 2).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Scatterplot of raw data for TBHBV infection status against percental forest cover.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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