Two Novel Parvoviruses in Frugivorous New and Old World Bats

Canuti, Marta; Eis-Huebinger, Anna Maria; Deijs, Martin; de Vries, Michel; Drexler, Jan Felix; Oppong, Samuel K.; Müller, Marcel A.; Klose, Stefan M.; Wellinghausen, Nele; Cottontail, Veronika M.; Kalko, Elisabeth K. V.; Drosten, Christian; van der Hoek, Lia

In the present study we evaluated whether bats carry viruses that belong to the Parvovirinae subfamily, in particular viruses that are closely related to the human ones in search for ancestral viruses and new potentially zoonotic viruses. So far virus discovery in bats was predominately performed in stool samples [9, 12, 14, 16] , but we chose serum/EDTA-plasma samples since human parvoviruses can appear in high concentrations in blood [21] . Three bat species were examined: Eidolon helvum and Artibeus jamaicensis/A. lituratus, frugivorous bats from Ghana and Panama, respectively. A sequence independent virus discovery technique (VIDISCA) was used in combination with high throughput sequencing [22] . By applying this methodology two new parvoviruses were identified. To further analyze the characteristics of these new viruses, the nearly fulllength genome sequences were determined, their prevalence in the respective populations was investigated, and viral concentrations in blood and different organs were determined. [23, 24] with respective permits for field work and export obtained from the Smithsonain Tropical Research Institute (STRI; IACUC protocol approved for V. Cottontail) and the Panamanian Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente (ANAM; Export permit # SEX/ A-145-05 granted to V. Cottontail).