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. 2021 Apr;27(4):1141-1145.
doi: 10.3201/eid2704.202676.

Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis Complex Alphavirus in Bats, French Guiana

Carlo Fischer, Dominique Pontier, Ondine Filippi-Codaccioni, Jean-Batiste Pons, Ignacio Postigo-Hidalgo, Jeanne Duhayer, Sebastian Brünink, Jan Felix Drexler

Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis Complex Alphavirus in Bats, French Guiana

Carlo Fischer et al. Emerg Infect Dis. 2021 Apr.

Abstract

Although essential for control strategies, knowledge about transmission cycles is limited for Venezuelan equine encephalitis complex alphaviruses (VEEVs). After testing 1,398 bats from French Guiana for alphaviruses, we identified and isolated a new strain of the encephalitogenic VEEV species Tonate virus (TONV). Bats may contribute to TONV spread in Latin America.

Keywords: French Guiana; Tonate virus; Venezuelan equine encephalitis complex alphavirus; bats; meningitis/encephalitis; viruses.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Tonate virus hosts and cycles for study of Venezuelan equine encephalitis complex alphavirus in bats, French Guiana. A) Geographic location of French Guiana in South America and distribution of fringe-lipped bats according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List (https://www.iucnredlist.org/). B) Schematic transmission cycles of TONV according to data from this study and preliminary studies (5,6).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Characterization of bat TONV in study of VEE complex alphavirus in bats, French Guiana. (For additional discussion of methods, see Appendix.) A) Growth kinetics of the new bat TONV on Vero E6 cells in 24-well plates. (B) Maximum-likelihood phylogeny of TONV and members of the VEEV antigenic complex based on full genome nucleotide sequences. Eastern equine encephalitis virus (NC_003899) was included as an outgroup. Viruses are named according to the VEEV subtype classification: IAB/IC/ID/IE/IIIC, Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus; IF, Mosso das Pedras virus; II, Everglades virus; IIIA, Mucambo virus; IIIB, Tonate virus; IV, Pixuna virus; V, Cabassou virus; VI, Rio Negro virus. Bootstrap support above 90% is highlighted by filled circles. C) Percentage nucleotide sequence identity between TONV isolates and other viruses of the VEE antigenic complex. Consensus preparation was done using Geneious 9.1.8 (https://www.geneious.com) by mapping to the TONV CaAn 410d complete genome (GenBank accession no. NC 038675.1) as reference. The median coverage for consensus preparation was 5,504 (range 5–11,605). TONV, Tonate virus; VEE, Venezuelan equine encephalitis.
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