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About the Authors:
Thomas J. O’Shea
* E-mail: [email protected]
Affiliation: United States Geological Survey, Fort Collins Science Center, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America
Richard A. Bowen
Affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America
Thomas R. Stanley
Affiliation: United States Geological Survey, Fort Collins Science Center, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America
Vidya Shankar
Current address: U.S. Army Public Health Command, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Fort Lewis, Washington, United States of America
Affiliations Department of Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
Charles E. Rupprecht
Affiliations Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine, Basseterre, Saint Kitts, West Indies, The Global Alliance for Rabies Control, Manhattan, Kansas, United States of America
Introduction
The presence of rabies virus neutralizing antibodies (RVNA) in serum of insectivorous bats of North America has been documented for over 50 years (e.g. [1]–[4]). However, initial investigations could not determine to what degree the presence of serum RVNA signaled past exposure, immunity, abortive infection, subclinical, or incubation phases of rabies [1], [3], [5]. Additionally, past serological surveys for RVNA in North American insectivorous bats were cross-sectional, in that wild bat populations were sampled once (sometimes terminally) and not marked for subsequent sampling. Historically, such serological surveys also concentrated on samples from small numbers of bat colonies for which there was limited ecological background information. More recent serological studies in Europe have indicated the presence of serum antibodies to other bat lyssaviruses in several species of insectivorous bats, usually at low prevalence (reviewed by Schatz et al. [6]). These latter studies included cross-sectional sampling at multiple locations and colonies [7]–[11], limited longitudinal sampling of marked individual bats [9], [12], [13] and analysis of ecological factors associated with seroprevalence [10], [13].
Herein we report on both cross-sectional and longitudinal prevalence of RVNA in serum samples of big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) roosting commensally with humans in the urbanizing setting of Fort Collins, Colorado, U.S.A. Big brown bats are the most common species of bat submitted for rabies diagnostic testing in passive public health surveillance programs in the U.S. and in Colorado [14]–[16]. Recent complementary studies of rabies pathogenesis in captive...