Discovery of a novel bat lyssavirus in a Long-fingered bat (Myotis capaccinii) from Slovenia

Abstract

Lyssaviruses are the causative agents of rabies, a zoonotic, fatal disease that is thought to be ancestral to bats. In the last decade, the detection of bat associated lyssaviruses is increasing also in Europe. Within a retrospective bat associated lyssavirus surveillance study a total of 225 dead bats of 21 bat species were collected in Slovenia between 2012 and 2019 and tested by specific real-time RT-PCR method. The first lyssavirus positive sample in bats in Slovenia was detected using the real-time RT-PCR, the fluorescent antibody test, and next generation sequencing, while the rabies tissue culture inoculation test was unsuccessful due to sample degradation and storage conditions. The nearly complete genome of Divača bat lyssavirus from Slovenia consists of 11,871 nucleotides and reflects the characteristic gene organization known for lyssaviruses, encoding the five viral proteins. Phylogenetic analysis of Divača bat lyssavirus revealed that it belongs to phylogroup I lyssaviruses and is most closely related to Kotalahti bat lyssavirus (KBLV) with 87.20% nucleotide and 99.22% amino acid identity. Together with KBLV, Khujand virus, European bat lyssavirus 2, Bakeloh bat lyssavirus, and Aravan virus, Divača bat lyssavirus was detected in the genus Myotis suggesting its key role in the transmission and maintenance of certain lyssaviruses.