Yellow fever virus investigation in tissues of vampire bats Desmodus
rotundus during a wild yellow fever outbreak in Brazilian Atlantic
Forest
Abstract
In the last decade a large outbreak of Yellow Fever (YF) has been
observed in Brazilian Atlantic Forest region, that is traditionally
non-endemic area. In this scenario, the role of wild mammal species as
YF reservoirs can be questioned, especially the hematophagous bat,
endemic to the Atlantic Forest. So, the objective was to analyze
molecularly the presence of the YF virus (YFV) in hematophagous bats
during a YF outbreak in Brazil. Twenty-one samples were collected from
seven adults’ male hematophagous bats Desmodus rotundus. Due YFV
is considered a viscerotropic and neurotropic virus, samples of liver,
kidney and brain were collected and molecularly analyzed using the RT
qPCR technique. The animals were captured according ethical protocols
during a YF outbreak in Brazil in 2017 from a region of the Brazilian
Atlantic Forest. The results revealed that the analyzed tissue samples
were not infected with the YFV. The negative results for this species of
bats allow us to infer that other animals may be reservoirs of this
virus in this ecosystem and are probably not being identified.
Therefore, health surveillance actions are essential to monitor the role
of wild animals in the yellow fever dissemination in Brazilian Atlantic
Forest and alert to possibility to new geographic amplification of areas
where YF occur. This research encourages the news search about role of
wild animals in the YFV transmission and reinforce the importance of
epidemiological surveillance in the transmission of human infectious
disease.