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Australian Bat Lyssavirus: Analysis of National Bat Surveillance Data from 2010 to 2016

Australian bat lyssavirus (ABLV) was first described in 1996 and has been regularly detected in Australian bats since that time. While the virus does not cause population level impacts in bats and has minimal impacts on domestic animals, it does pose a public health risk. For this reason, bats are m...

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Autores principales: Iglesias, Rachel, Cox-Witton, Keren, Field, Hume, Skerratt, Lee F., Barrett, Janine
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7911197/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33513882
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v13020189
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author Iglesias, Rachel
Cox-Witton, Keren
Field, Hume
Skerratt, Lee F.
Barrett, Janine
author_facet Iglesias, Rachel
Cox-Witton, Keren
Field, Hume
Skerratt, Lee F.
Barrett, Janine
author_sort Iglesias, Rachel
collection PubMed
description Australian bat lyssavirus (ABLV) was first described in 1996 and has been regularly detected in Australian bats since that time. While the virus does not cause population level impacts in bats and has minimal impacts on domestic animals, it does pose a public health risk. For this reason, bats are monitored for ABLV and a national dataset is collated and maintained by Wildlife Health Australia. The 2010–2016 dataset was analysed using logistic regression and time-series analysis to identify predictors of infection status in bats and the factors associated with human exposure to bats. In common with previous passive surveillance studies, we found that little red flying-foxes (Pteropus scapulatus) are more likely than other species to be infected with ABLV. In the four Australian mainland species of flying-fox, there are seasonal differences in infection risk that may be associated with reproductive cycles, with summer and autumn the seasons of greatest risk. The risk of human contact was also seasonal, with lower risk in winter. In line with other studies, we found that the circumstances in which the bat is encountered, such as exhibiting abnormal behaviour or being grounded, are risk factors for ABLV infection and human contact and should continue be key components of public health messaging. We also found evidence of biased recording of some types of information, which made interpretation of some findings more challenging. Strengthening of “One Health” linkages between public health and animal health services at the operational level could help overcome these biases in future, and greater harmonisation nationally would increase the value of the dataset.
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spelling pubmed-79111972021-02-28 Australian Bat Lyssavirus: Analysis of National Bat Surveillance Data from 2010 to 2016 Iglesias, Rachel Cox-Witton, Keren Field, Hume Skerratt, Lee F. Barrett, Janine Viruses Article Australian bat lyssavirus (ABLV) was first described in 1996 and has been regularly detected in Australian bats since that time. While the virus does not cause population level impacts in bats and has minimal impacts on domestic animals, it does pose a public health risk. For this reason, bats are monitored for ABLV and a national dataset is collated and maintained by Wildlife Health Australia. The 2010–2016 dataset was analysed using logistic regression and time-series analysis to identify predictors of infection status in bats and the factors associated with human exposure to bats. In common with previous passive surveillance studies, we found that little red flying-foxes (Pteropus scapulatus) are more likely than other species to be infected with ABLV. In the four Australian mainland species of flying-fox, there are seasonal differences in infection risk that may be associated with reproductive cycles, with summer and autumn the seasons of greatest risk. The risk of human contact was also seasonal, with lower risk in winter. In line with other studies, we found that the circumstances in which the bat is encountered, such as exhibiting abnormal behaviour or being grounded, are risk factors for ABLV infection and human contact and should continue be key components of public health messaging. We also found evidence of biased recording of some types of information, which made interpretation of some findings more challenging. Strengthening of “One Health” linkages between public health and animal health services at the operational level could help overcome these biases in future, and greater harmonisation nationally would increase the value of the dataset. MDPI 2021-01-27 /pmc/articles/PMC7911197/ /pubmed/33513882 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v13020189 Text en © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Iglesias, Rachel
Cox-Witton, Keren
Field, Hume
Skerratt, Lee F.
Barrett, Janine
Australian Bat Lyssavirus: Analysis of National Bat Surveillance Data from 2010 to 2016
title Australian Bat Lyssavirus: Analysis of National Bat Surveillance Data from 2010 to 2016
title_full Australian Bat Lyssavirus: Analysis of National Bat Surveillance Data from 2010 to 2016
title_fullStr Australian Bat Lyssavirus: Analysis of National Bat Surveillance Data from 2010 to 2016
title_full_unstemmed Australian Bat Lyssavirus: Analysis of National Bat Surveillance Data from 2010 to 2016
title_short Australian Bat Lyssavirus: Analysis of National Bat Surveillance Data from 2010 to 2016
title_sort australian bat lyssavirus: analysis of national bat surveillance data from 2010 to 2016
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7911197/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33513882
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v13020189
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