McElhinney, Lorraine M ORCID: 0000-0002-6022-348X, Marston, Denise A, Wise, Emma L, Freuling, Conrad M, Bourhy, Herve, Zanoni, Reto, Moldal, Torfinn, Kooi, Engbert A, Neubauer-Juric, Antonie, Nokireki, Tiina et al (show 2 more authors)
(2018)
Molecular Epidemiology and Evolution of European Bat Lyssavirus 2.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES, 19 (1).
E156-.
Abstract
Bat rabies cases in Europe are mainly attributed to two lyssaviruses, namely European Bat Lyssavirus 1 (EBLV-1) and European Bat Lyssavirus 2 (EBLV-2). Prior to the death of a bat worker in Finland in 1985, very few bat rabies cases were reported. Enhanced surveillance in the two subsequent years (1986-1987) identified 263 cases (more than a fifth of all reported cases to date). Between 1977 and 2016, 1183 cases of bat rabies were reported, with the vast majority (>97%) being attributed to EBLV-1. In contrast, there have been only 39 suspected cases of EBLV-2, of which 34 have been confirmed by virus typing and presently restricted to just two bat species; <i>Myotis daubentonii</i> and <i>Myotis dasycneme</i>. The limited number of EBLV-2 cases in Europe prompted the establishment of a network of European reference laboratories to collate all available viruses and data. Despite the relatively low number of EBLV-2 cases, a large amount of anomalous data has been published in the scientific literature, which we have here reviewed and clarified. In this review, 29 EBLV-2 full genome sequences have been analysed to further our understanding of the diversity and molecular evolution of EBLV-2 in Europe. Analysis of the 29 complete EBLV-2 genome sequences clearly corroborated geographical relationships with all EBLV-2 sequences clustering at the country level irrespective of the gene studied. Further geographical clustering was also observed at a local level. There are high levels of homogeneity within the EBLV-2 species with nucleotide identities ranging from 95.5-100% and amino acid identities between 98.7% and 100%, despite the widespread distribution of the isolates both geographically and chronologically. The mean substitution rate for EBLV-2 across the five concatenated genes was 1.65 × 10<sup>-5</sup>, and evolutionary clock analysis confirms the slow evolution of EBLV-2 both between and within countries in Europe. This is further supported by the first detailed EBLV-2 intra-roost genomic analysis whereby a relatively high sequence homogeneity was found across the genomes of three EBLV-2 isolates obtained several years apart (2007, 2008, and 2014) from <i>M. daubentonii</i> at the same site (Stokesay Castle, Shropshire, UK).
Item Type: | Article |
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Uncontrolled Keywords: | EBLV-2, genome, Europe, evolution, epidemiology, Myotis, bat |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Admin |
Date Deposited: | 08 Feb 2019 12:14 |
Last Modified: | 13 Feb 2024 14:57 |
DOI: | 10.3390/ijms19010156 |
Open Access URL: | http://doi.org/10.3390/ijms19010156 |
Related URLs: | |
URI: | https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3032528 |