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Isolation of Rio Bravo and a Hitherto Undescribed Agent, Tamana Bat Virus, from Insectivorous Bats in Trinidad, with Serological Evidence of Infection in Bats and Man

Between 1972 and 1974, 3,278 bats of 28 species were processed for virus isolation by suckling mouse (SM) inoculation. Two strains each of two unrelated viruses, not hitherto reported from Trinidad, were isolated from insectivorous bats. Rio Bravo (RB) virus was isolated from salivary glands and saliva of the house bat, Molossus ater. The other virus, isolated from salivary glands, saliva and spleen of the moustache bat, Pteronotus parnellii, is a hitherto undescribed agent herein named Tamana bat virus (TBV). This virus has arbovirus characteristics: sensitivity to ether, pathogenicity for SM, and ability to hemagglutinate goose erythrocytes, but no serological relationship with known arboviruses and other viruses could be detected. In inoculation experiments with TBV, fatal illness was produced only in infant mice and rats, salivary virus excretion was demonstrated in a monkey and in Phyllostomus hastatus bats, and virus was passaged in bats by subcutaneous inoculation of infected saliva. Sera of humans and 39 species of bats were tested for hemagglutination inhibition (HI): 46 out of 169 human and 125 out of 887 bat sera reacted with RB antigen, and of the positive bat sera 121 were from 6 insectivorous species; 21 out of 172 human and 72 out of 850 bat sera reacted with TBV antigen, positives occurring in 15 bat species comprising insectivorous, fruit-eating and vampire bats, with highest incidence in cave-roosting species. In SM neutralization tests, 18 out of 27 HI-positive human sera protected against RB, 1 out of 10 against TBV; bat sera protective against RB were found in 4 insectivorous species, and against TBV in 8 species including the vampire bat, Desmodus rotundus. No evidence of arthropod transmission of either virus was found.

Accepted for publication May 7, 1977.

^* Present address: Asa Wright Nature Centre, P.O. Bag No. 10, Port of Spain, Trinidad, West Indies.