Researcher clarifies report on suspected virus spillover from bats in Mimi village

Dimapur, Nov. 8 (EMN): The National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru has clarified that the antibodies detected in bats at Mimi village in Kiphire district had reacted to a virus most closely related to Ebolavirus but not Ebola virus (the strain that causes Ebola disease). In a statement issued on Friday, Pilot Dovih, a doctoral candidate at the NCBS and a member of the research team that conducted the study, informed that “bats are important reservoirs of zoonotic viruses, and bat harvesting in Mimi represented a unique study site to look at spillover disease from wildlife to humans”. According to him, the opportunity to study both bats and humans “allowed us to detect if these groups had been exposed to the same filoviruses”. “So far, we have not identified any nucleic acid (viral RNA) or active infection of filovirus in both the human and bats. The antibodies we detected react to a virus most closely related to Ebolavirus but not Ebola virus (the strain that causes Ebola disease). It will be misleading to say they are exposed to Zaire Ebola, Bundibugyo, and Sudan viruses. We have no clue about the pathogenicity (disease-causing ability) of this virus detected in Mimi. “Interestingly, one species of the hunted bats and the humans share the same serological reactivity profile against a panel of filovirus proteins. Indicating this species may be the source of human exposure. There also appears to be multiple filoviruses circulating in bats in this region, but we do not know if these viruses are pathogenic or dangerous to humans. We report the first evidence of Měnglà virus (new filovirus discovered from one of the species hunted in Mimi as well) serologically (in bats) which was described recently in South China. The distance from where Měnglà was identified is about 830 km from Mimi as the crow flies. “Our results emphasise the need to better understand filovirus ecology and diversity in this region. Our study demonstrates our knowledge gaps in this virus family. There are six known species of filovirus under the genus name Ebolavirus. We do not know what species of filovirus it is; it could be a new species of Ebolavirus, we never know. Further study is still going on to determine species of filovirus circulation in bats in the region. There is no evidence of previous filovirus outbreaks in this region. Still, with this study, we detected that humans participating in a high-risk activity (bat harvesting) were exposed to filoviruses. There is no reason to get panic as it is not a disease-causing filovirus but we should be cautious handling infected animals,” read the statement. Also, it stated that part of its research involved educating the ‘harvest participants’ about potential risks and the importance of bats to the ecosystem. Referring to the disease outbreak in 1980 (as reported by Eastern Mirror), he was of the view that the incident may not have been officially documented due to the remoteness of the village back then. ‘We do not know for sure what kind of sickness it was, but based on personal communication with some leaders, it sounds like it was some viral disease and not malaria or typhoid,’ he said. The possibility of widespread mosquito menace is out of the question as Mimi, like any old Naga village, is located in a highly elevated place, he reasoned. “Malaria/typhoid does not spread through aerosol or physical contact. Malaria/ typhoid do not spread like wildfire, killing so many people in a very short span of time in a small geographic area (a village). Malaria/typhoid symptom is not associated with diarrhoea or vomiting. The disease could have faded away and not spread to other villages or towns due to the geographical barrier,” he said.