Isolation of Angola-like Marburg virus from Egyptian rousette bats from West Africa.
Brian R AmmanBrian H BirdIbrahim A BakarrJames BanguraAmy J SchuhJonathan JohnnyTara K SealyImmah ContehAlusine H KoromaIbrahim FodayEmmanuel AmaraAbdulai A BanguraAiah A GbakimaAlexandre Tremeau-BravardManjunatha BelaganahalliJasjeet DhanotaAndrew ChowVictoria OntiverosAlexandra GibsonJoseph TurayKetan PatelJames GrazianoCamilla BanguraEmmanuel S KamandaAugustus OsborneEmmanuel SaiduJonathan MusaDoris BanguraSamuel Maxwell Tom WilliamsRichard WadsworthMohamed TurayLavalie EdwinVanessa Mereweather-ThompsonDickson KargboFatmata V BairohMarilyn KanuWillie RobertVictor LungaiRaoul Emeric Guetiya WadoumMoinya CoomberOsman KanuAmara JambaiSorie M KamaraCeline H TaboyTushar SinghJonna A K MazetStuart T NicholTracey GoldsteinJonathan S TownerAiah LebbiePublished in: Nature communications (2020)
Marburg virus (MARV) causes sporadic outbreaks of severe Marburg virus disease (MVD). Most MVD outbreaks originated in East Africa and field studies in East Africa, South Africa, Zambia, and Gabon identified the Egyptian rousette bat (ERB; Rousettus aegyptiacus) as a natural reservoir. However, the largest recorded MVD outbreak with the highest case-fatality ratio happened in 2005 in Angola, where direct spillover from bats was not shown. Here, collaborative studies by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Njala University, University of California, Davis USAID-PREDICT, and the University of Makeni identify MARV circulating in ERBs in Sierra Leone. PCR, antibody and virus isolation data from 1755 bats of 42 species shows active MARV infection in approximately 2.5% of ERBs. Phylogenetic analysis identifies MARVs that are similar to the Angola strain. These results provide evidence of MARV circulation in West Africa and demonstrate the value of pathogen surveillance to identify previously undetected threats.