Seroprevalence in Bats and Detection of in Bat Ectoparasites.
Arinjay Banerjee, Kaushal Baid, Taylor Byron, Alyssa Yip, Caleb Ryan, Prasobh Raveendran Thampy, Hugh Broders, Paul Faure, Karen Mossman
Author Information
Arinjay Banerjee: Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, McMaster Immunology Research Centre, Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4L8, Canada. ORCID
Kaushal Baid: Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, McMaster Immunology Research Center, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4L8, Canada. ORCID
Taylor Byron: Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4K1, Canada.
Alyssa Yip: Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, McMaster Immunology Research Centre, Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4L8, Canada.
Caleb Ryan: Department of Biology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada.
Prasobh Raveendran Thampy: Department of Veterinary Microbiology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5B4, Canada.
Hugh Broders: Department of Biology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada.
Paul Faure: Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4K1, Canada.
Karen Mossman: Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, McMaster Immunology Research Centre, Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4L8, Canada.
The role of bats in the enzootic cycle of Lyme disease and relapsing fever-causing bacteria is a matter of speculation. In Canada, sensu stricto (ss) is the genospecies that is responsible for most cases of Lyme disease in humans. In this study, we determined if big brown bats, have been exposed to spirochetes from the genus . We collected serum from 31 bats and tested them for the presence of anti- antibodies using a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). We detected cross-reactive antibodies to spp. in 14 of 31 bats. We confirmed the ELISA data using a commercial immunoblot assay. Pooled sera from ELISA-positive bats also cross-reacted with antigens coated on the immunoblot strips, whereas pooled sera from ELISA-negative bats did not bind to spp. antigens. Furthermore, to identify if bat ectoparasites, such as mites, can carry spp., we analyzed DNA from 142 bat ectoparasites that were collected between 2003 and 2019. We detected DNA for the gene in one bat mite, . The low detection rate of DNA in bat ectoparasites suggests that bats are not reservoirs of this bacterium. Data from this study also raises intriguing questions about infections in bats, including the role of humoral immunity and the ability of bats to be infected with . This study can lead to more sampling efforts and controlled laboratory studies to identify if bats can be infected with and the role of bat ectoparasites, such as in the transmission of this spirochete. Furthermore, we outlined reagents that can be used to adapt ELISA kits and immunoblot strips for use with bat sera.
