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Improving pandemic influenza risk assessment Institute of Tropical Medicine

Colin A Russell, Peter M Kasson, Ruben O Donis, Steven Riley, John Dunbar, Andrew Rambaut, Jason Asher, Stephen Burke, C Todd Davis, Rebecca J Garten, et al.

Assessing the pandemic risk posed by specific non-human influenza A viruses is an important goal in public health research. As influenza virus genome sequencing becomes cheaper, faster, and more readily available, the ability to predict pandemic potential from sequence data could transform pandemic influenza risk assessment capabilities. However, the complexities of the relationships between virus genotype and phenotype make such predictions ...

At Least Seven Distinct Rotavirus Genotype Constellations in Bats with Evidence of Reassortment and Zoonotic Transmissions KU Leuven

Ceren Şimşek, Daan Jansen, Ward Deboutte, Marc Van Ranst, Jelle Matthijnssens
Bats host many viruses pathogenic to humans, and increasing evidence suggests that rotavirus A (RVA) also belongs to this list. Rotaviruses cause diarrheal disease in many mammals and birds, and their segmented genomes allow them to reassort and increase their genetic diversity. Eighteen out of 2,142 bat fecal samples (0.8%) collected from Europe, Central America, and Africa were PCR-positive for RVA, and 11 of those were fully characterized ...

Cameroonian fruit bats harbor divergent viruses, including rotavirus H, bastroviruses, and picobirnaviruses using an alternative genetic code KU Leuven

Kwe Claude Yinda, Leen Beller, Ward Deboutte, Emiel Vanhulle, Piet Maes, Marc Van Ranst, Jelle Matthijnssens
Most human emerging infectious diseases originate from wildlife and bats are a major reservoir of viruses, a few of which have been highly pathogenic to humans. In some regions of Cameroon, bats are hunted and eaten as a delicacy. This close proximity between human and bats provides ample opportunity for zoonotic events. To elucidate the viral diversity of Cameroonian fruit bats, we collected and metagenomically screened eighty-seven fecal ...

Accounting for population structure reveals ambiguity in the Zaire Ebolavirus reservoir dynamics KU Leuven

Bram Vrancken, Tony Wawina, Bert Vanmechelen, Joan MARTI CARRERAS, Guy Baele, Kurt Vermeire, Valentijn Vergote, Piet Maes
Ebolaviruses pose a substantial threat to wildlife populations and to public health in Africa. Evolutionary analyses of virus genome sequences can contribute significantly to elucidate the origin of new outbreaks, which can help guide surveillance efforts. The reconstructed between-outbreak evolutionary history of Zaire ebolavirus so far has been highly consistent. By removing the confounding impact of population growth bursts during local ...

Papillomavirus-associated cutaneous papillomas in a population of wild spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) KU Leuven

Hans Stevens, Elisabeth Heylen, Annabel Rector, Marc Van Ranst
Beginning in 1997 Michigan State University Mara Hyena Project investigators observed waxing and waning progression of oral and genital masses during long-term behavioral observations of a population of wild spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) from the Masai Mara Game Reserve, Kenya. From 1999-2000, we darted adult spotted hyenas to obtain routine physiologic and hematologic data and collected small, raised, lobulated, pigmented masses from the ...