Journal
PATHOGENS
Volume 10, Issue 5, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/pathogens10050557
Keywords
Ebola virus; bats; the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Categories
Funding
- Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale (INSERM)/the Ebola Task Force/REACTing - European Union [FOOD/2016/379-660]
- IRD (ARTS, Allocation de Recherche pour une these au Sud)
- BIODIVAFREID project (BiodivERsA ERA-Net COFUND programme, 2018-2019 joint call for proposals) [ANR-19-EBI3-0004]
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) [ANR-19-EBI3-0004] Funding Source: Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR)
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Bats play an important role in the transmission of Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), potentially serving as a reservoir host for the virus. While no viral RNA was detected in bat samples during large-scale surveys, this highlights the challenges and urgency of tracking bats as a potential source of the virus.
With 12 of the 31 outbreaks, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is highly affected by Ebolavirus disease (EVD). To better understand the role of bats in the ecology of Ebola viruses, we conducted surveys in bats during two recent EVD outbreaks and in two areas with previous outbreaks. Dried blood spots were tested for antibodies to ebolaviruses and oral and rectal swabs were screened for the presence of filovirus using a broadly reactive semi-nested RT-PCR. Between 2018 and 2020, 892 (88.6%) frugivorous and 115 (11.4%) insectivorous bats were collected. Overall, 11/925 (1.2%) to 100/925 (10.8%) bats showed antibodies to at least one Ebolavirus antigen depending on the positivity criteria. Antibodies were detected in fruit bats from the four sites and from species previously documented to harbor Ebola antibodies or RNA. We tested for the first time a large number of bats during ongoing EVD outbreaks in DRC, but no viral RNA was detected in the 676 sampled bats. Our study illustrates the difficulty to document the role of bats as a source of Ebolaviruses as they might clear quickly the virus. Given the increasing frequency of EVD outbreaks, more studies on the animal reservoir are urgently needed.
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