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1 University of Saskatchewan;
2 Public Health Agency of Canada;
3 Manitoba Conservation;
4 University of Winnipeg;
5 Canadian Food Inspection Agency
6 E-mail: vikram.misra{at}usask.ca
Several instances of emerging diseases in humans appear to be caused by the spillover of viruses endemic to bats, either directly or through other animal intermediaries. The objective of this study was to detect, identify and characterize viruses in bats in the province of Manitoba and other regions of Canada. Bats were sampled from three sources: live-trapped Myotis lucifugus from Manitoba, rabies negative Eptesicus fuscus, M. lucifugus M. yumanensis, M. septentrionalis, M. californicus, M. evotis, Lasionycteris noctivagans, and Lasiurus cinereus, provided by the Centre of Expertise for Rabies of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), and Lasionycteris noctivagans, Lasiurus cinereus and L. borealis collected from a wind-farm in Manitoba. We attempted to isolate viruses from fresh tissue samples taken from trapped bats in cultured cells of bat, primate, rodent, porcine, ovine and avian origin. We also screened bat tissues by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using primers designed to amplify nucleic acids from members of certain families of viruses. We detected RNA of a group 1 coronavirus from M. lucifugus (3 of 31 animals) and DNA from an as yet undescribed polyomavirus from female M. lucifugus (4 of 31 animals) and M. californicus (pooled tissues from 2 females).
Received 29 January 2009;
accepted 31 March 2009.
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