Lyssaviruses in Insectivorous Bats, South Africa, 2003-2018

Abstract

We detected 3 lyssaviruses in insectivorous bats sampled in South Africa during 2003-2018. We used phylogenetic analysis to identify Duvenhage lyssavirus and a potentially new lyssavirus, provisionally named Matlo bat lyssavirus, that is related to West Caucasian bat virus. These new detections highlight that much about lyssaviruses remains unknown.

Keywords: Duvenhage virus; Matlo bat lyssavirus; South Africa; West Caucasian bat virus; bats; encephalitis; insectivorous bats; lyssaviruses; rabies; surveillance; viral zoonoses; viruses; zoonoses.

Figure 1

Locations of bat collection sites, South Africa, 2003–2018. Circles indicate collection sites, squares indicate sites with lyssavirus-positive bats, and triangles indicate capitals.

Figure 2

Phylogenetic reconstruction by Bayesian inference of nucleoprotein gene sequences of lyssavirus sequences from bats collected in South Africa, 2003–2018 (bold), and other representative lyssaviruses. Node numbers indicate posterior probabilities. GenBank accession number, host species, year of detection, and country of origin are indicated for each sequence. Scale bar indicates number of substitutions per site.