Susceptibility of domestic dogs and cats to Australian bat lyssavirus (ABLV)

• Published in: Veterinary microbiology 2007-07, Vol.123 (1), p.15-25
• Main Authors: McColl, Kenneth A., Chamberlain, Tamasine, Lunt, Ross A., Newberry, Kim M., Westbury, Harvey A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Antibodies, Viral - blood; antibody detection; antigen detection; Australian bat lyssavirus; Biological and medical sciences; Cat Diseases - virology; Cats; Cats - virology; Chiroptera - virology; disease resistance; Disease Susceptibility - veterinary; Dog Diseases - virology; Dogs; Dogs - virology; Eptesicus; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Genotypes; Glycoproteins - genetics; inoculum; intramuscular injection; Lyssavirus; Lyssavirus - pathogenicity; Lyssavirus - physiology; Male; Mice; Microbiology; Miscellaneous; pets; Rabies virus; Rhabdoviridae Infections - veterinary; RNA, Viral - blood; seroconversion; signs and symptoms (animals and humans); Susceptibility; Time Factors; viral challenge; Viral Proteins - genetics; Virology; virus replication
• ISSN: 0378-1135; 1873-2542
• DOI: 10.1016/j.vetmic.2007.03.024

The susceptibility of cats and dogs to Australian bat lyssavirus (ABLV; genotype VII) was investigated by intramuscular (IM) inoculation of 10 3.7–10 5 50% tissue culture infective doses (TCID 50) of virus followed by observation of experimental animals for up to 3 months post-inoculation (pi). Each experiment also included positive and negative controls, animals inoculated with a bat variant of rabies virus (Eptesicus I, genotype I), or a 10% suspension of uninfected mouse brain, respectively. Each of the ABLV-inoculated cats showed occasional abnormal clinical signs, but none died. Necropsies performed at 3 months pi revealed no lesions, and no viral antigen, in the central nervous system of any cat. ABLV could not be recovered from any cats. However, rabies virus-neutralizing antibodies were detected between 4 and 14 weeks pi in the sera of all three ABLV-inoculated cats. At 2–3 weeks pi, three of the five ABLV-inoculated dogs showed very mild abnormal clinical signs that persisted for 1–2 days, after which the dogs recovered. At 3 months pi, when all dogs were necropsied, neither lesions nor ABLV antigen were detected in, and virus was not isolated from, any dog. No ABLV RNA was detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in clinical or necropsy samples from the three ABLV-affected dogs. However, all ABLV-inoculated dogs seroconverted by 2 weeks pi, and serum antibody titres were higher than those observed in cats. CSF, collected at 3 months pi, was positive for rabies virus-neutralizing antibody in two ABLV-inoculated dogs.