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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Virology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1493428

Nipah virus survey in Pteropus medius of Eastern and Northeastern region of India, 2022-2023

Provisionally accepted
Sreelekshmy Mohandas Sreelekshmy Mohandas 1Dilip Patil Dilip Patil 1Basavaraj S Mathapati Basavaraj S Mathapati 1Vishal Rai Vishal Rai 1Anita Shete Anita Shete 1Sujeet Belani Sujeet Belani 2Dr Abhinendra Kumar Dr Abhinendra Kumar 1Dr. Rima Rakeshkumar Sahay Dr. Rima Rakeshkumar Sahay 1Deepak Y Patil Deepak Y Patil 1PRAGYA DHRUV YADAV PRAGYA DHRUV YADAV 1*
  • 1 ICMR-National Institute of Virology, Pune, India
  • 2 National Institute of One Health, Nagpur, Nagpur, India

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    India has experienced seven outbreaks of the Nipah virus (NiV) since 2001, primarily occurring in the southern and eastern regions of the country. The southern region has been the main site for these outbreaks. In contrast, the eastern region, which borders Bangladesh, has not reported any outbreaks since 2007. However, Bangladesh continues to experience nearly annual outbreaks, indicating a significant lack of surveillance in that area. To improve the country's preparedness and to gather support for enhancing public health surveillance in eastern and northeastern states near the area affected by the NiV, a cross-sectional survey was conducted to determine the prevalence of NiV in the bat species Pteropus medius in Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, and Meghalaya states in India, which are adjacent to Bangladesh. Throat and rectal swab samples of 212 P. medius tested for NiV using reverse transcription PCR were found negative, whereas organ samples of two (one each from West Bengal and Bihar) out of the 10 bats collected tested positive. The retrieved NiV genome (~91%) showed close homology to the NiV-Bangladesh genotype indicating the circulation of two geographically distinct NiV strains in India. The seroprevalence estimated by ELISA ranged from 23-65% in the studied states. The serological and virological evidence obtained from the study indicates that a broader geographical area is under threat of spillover in India. It's crucial to implement a One Health approach connecting bat surveillance studies with human surveillance and risk factor studies in the region.

    Keywords: Nipah Virus, Eastern India, Pteropus medius, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya

    Received: 09 Sep 2024; Accepted: 04 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Mohandas, Patil, Mathapati, Rai, Shete, Belani, Kumar, Sahay, Patil and YADAV. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: PRAGYA DHRUV YADAV, ICMR-National Institute of Virology, Pune, India

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