RT-PCR Survey of Emerging Paramyxoviruses in Cave-dwelling Bats

Bats are the reservoir hosts for several Paraxyxoviruses including two serious zononotic viruses, Hendra virus and Nipah virus which are responsible for fatal infections in animals and humans. These two viruses are sufficiently differently from previously described Paramyxoviruses and are included in a new genus, Henipavirus. We report were collected in nine caves inhabited by six different bat species in the northern (Chiangmai and Nakornsawan) and southern (Songkla and Satoon) provinces of Thailand. A reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) assay using henipavirus-specific primers drived from the conserved region of the RNA polymerase (L) gene was used to detect known and unknown viruses in this genus. Samples from seven out of nine caves surveyed tested positive by RT-PCR. Nucleotide sequences of the PCR bands revealed the presence of diverse strains (three clusters and seven divergent genotypes) of previously uncharacterised paramyxovirus(es). Phylogenetics analysis based on the deduced L protein sequence revealed close correlations between the positive samples and the recently described but unclassified paramyxoviruses: Beilong virus and J-virus. This is the first report on the prevalence of paramyxovirus variants in cave-dwelling bats and highlights the importance of further epidemiological surveillance in bats.