Surveillance for lyssaviruses was conducted amongbat populations in 8 provinces in Thailand. In 2002 and2003, a total of 932 bats of 11 species were captured andreleased after serum collection. Lyssavirus infection wasdetermined by conducting virus neutralization assays onbat serum samples. Of collected samples, 538 were eitherhemolysed or insufficient in volume, which left 394 suitablefor analysis. These samples included the following:Pteropus lylei (n = 335), Eonycteris spelaea (n = 45),Hipposideros armiger (n = 13), and Rousettus leschen-naulti (n = 1). No serum samples had evidence of neutral-izing antibodies when tested against rabies virus. However,16 samples had detectable neutralizing antibodies againstAravan virus, Khujand virus, Irkut virus, or Australian batlyssavirus; all were specifically associated with fruit bats P.lylei (n = 15) and E. spelaea (n = 1). These results are con-sistent with the presence of naturally occurring virusesrelated to new putative lyssavirus genotypes
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