Hypsugopoxvirus: A Novel Poxvirus Isolated from Hypsugo savii in Italy

Lelli, Davide; Lavazza, Antonio; Prosperi, Alice; Sozzi, Enrica; Faccin, Francesca; Baioni, Laura; Trogu, Tiziana; Cavallari, Gian Luca; Mauri, Matteo; Gibellini, Anna Maria; Chiapponi, Chiara; Moreno, Ana

In this study, a novel poxvirus, HYPV, was detected from the microbat Hypsugo savii in Italy. This likely represents the first poxvirus detection in bats in Europe. In fact, only four poxviruses have been documented to date in bat populations worldwide, and these and these have diverse and somehow incomplete descriptions, with just some common aspects. Firstly, EHPV1 was detected in 2009 with a high-prevalence in throat swabs from apparently healthy African megabats (Eidolon helvum), and metagenomic analysis identified poxvirus sequences that were most closely related with Molluscum contagiosum (MOCV), a human-only pathogen [11] . In the same year of 2009, another bat poxvirus was incidentally detected in South Australia during the investigation of an outbreak of parasitic skin disease in a population of the microbat species, Miniopterus schreibersii bassanii. In one of the twenty-one bats examined, an independent (non-nematode-associated) lesion containing intracytoplasmic inclusion bodies indicative of poxvirus infection was observed, and this was confirmed with electron microscopy [13] . Between 2009 and 2011, EPTV was detected in adult big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) with severe joint disease (tenosynovitis and osteoarthritis) at a wildlife center in Northwestern United States. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that Eptesipoxvirus is most closely related to the Cotia virus, a virus detected in sentinel suckling mice in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1961 [27, 28] . PTPV was detected from an Australian little red flying fox (Pteropus scapulatus) that died following entrapment on a fence. Post-mortem examination revealed multiple nodules on the wing membranes. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that PTPV is not closely related to any other poxvirus isolated from bats or other species, and that it likely should be placed in a new genus [12] .