Addendum to our submission of 7th Dec: Terms of Reference I would like to address the following Terms of Reference of the Committee: • Strategic approach to managing the species at a regional level. The public health issues outlined hereunder suggest that both Federal and State authorities need to co-ordinate a strategic national approach to species management as a matter of priority. Risks to Public health and Agriculture: We currently have flying-fox roosts in some 56 regional centres and city suburbs spread over 3,000km of the East coast, that have given their local council cause to get permits to carry out management activity. Some of these roosts are seasonal, some permanent. We tolerate the existence of these bio-concentrations on the basis that flying-fox populations are ‘critical’ to the health of our rain forests and native bush. They may very well be important, perhaps critical, but in either case it is evident that the health and survival of the species and benefit to our bush, is NOT dependent on camps or roosts being located and tolerated in residential or suburban areas. As a community we would quite reasonably prohibit the establishment of a poultry farm with say 20,000 birds in the middle of a regional CBD or a Sydney suburb, citing noise, smell, disease risk etc. However recently a bio-concentration of around 300,000 animals was allowed to build up in a small regional town, Batemans Bay, before effective dispersal action was taken. These animals are known disease carriers and in recent years have caused human fatalities in Australia from both ABLV (Australian Bat Lyssavirus) and Hendra. Anecdotal evidence from Batemans Bay suggests a markedly higher incidence of lung infections related to the recent invasion of GHFF, particularly amongst the elderly. Known diseases carried by flying-fox populations: • Hendra virus • Australian Bat Lyssavirus (ABLV) • Menangle virus • Ross River fever (with a high incidence in Cairns corresponding to a high FF concentration) • Japanese encephalitis If these animals (in conjunction with mosquitoes as happens with Ross River fever) were to become a vector for any other contagious disease (think Avian flu or Zika), then the bulk of our East coast population and possibly our agricultural industry would be at increased, and I submit, unacceptable risk. (Attachment: Journal of Applied Microbiology 2003, 94, 59S–69S Managing emerging diseases borne by fruit bats (flying foxes), with particular reference to henipaviruses and Australian bat lyssavirus.) Journal of Applied Microbiology 2003, 94, 59S–69S Managing emerging diseases borne by fruit bats (flying foxes), with particular reference to henipaviruses and Australian bat lyssavirus J.S. Mackenzie1, H.E. Field2 and K.J. Guyatt1 1Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, School of Molecular and Microbial Sciences, University of Queensland and 2Department of Primary Industries, Animal Research Institute, Moorooka, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia 1. Summary, 59S 5. Other viruses associated with fruit bats, 63S 2. Introduction, 59S 6. Management strategies, 63S 3. Emergence of three new viruses in Australia, 60S 6.1 Current strategies, 64S 3.1 Hendra virus, 60S 6.1.1 Hendra and Nipah viruses, 64S 3.2 Australian Bat Lyssavirus (ABLV), 61S 6.1.2 Menangle virus, 64S 3.3 Menangle virus, 61S 6.1.3 Australian bat lyssavirus, 64S 4. The emergence of similar viruses in Southeast Asia, 62S 6.2 Future strategies, 65S 4.1 Nipah virus, 62S 6.2.1 Can a vaccination strategy be developed to 4.2 Tioman virus, 63S control emerging viral diseases in flying 4.3 Australian bat lyssavirus, 63S foxes? 65S 4.4 Comments on the possible emergence of other 7. Acknowledgements, 66S related viruses, 63S 8. References, 66S to flying foxes, and better disease recognition and diagnosis, 1. SUMMARY and for ABLV specifically, the use of rabies vaccine for pre- Since 1994, a number of novel viruses have been described and post-exposure prophylaxis. Finally, an intriguing and from bats in Australia and Malaysia, particularly from fruit long-term strategy is that of wildlife immunization through bats belonging to the genus Pteropus (flying foxes), and it is plant-derived vaccination. probable that related viruses will be found in other countries across the geographical range of other members of the 2. INTRODUCTION genus. These viruses include Hendra and Nipah viruses, members of a new genus, Henipaviruses, within the family The role of bats in the maintenance and spread of various Paramyxoviridae; Menangle and Tioman viruses, new viral diseases is well established (Sulkin and Allen 1974; members of the Rubulavirus genus within the Paramyxov- Ghatak et al. 2000; McColl et al. 2000), including members iridae; and Australian bat lyssavirus (ABLV), a member of of the alphaviruses, flaviviruses, rhabdoviruses and arenavi- the Lyssavirus genus in the family Rhabdoviridae. All but ruses. However, much of the information has been gathered Tioman virus are known to be associated with human and/ from members of the suborder Microchiroptera (insectivor- or livestock diseases. The isolation, disease associations and ous and vampire bats), and relatively little information is biological properties of the viruses are described, and are available for the members of the suborder Megachiroptera used as the basis for developing management strategies (fruit bats and flying foxes). Lyssaviruses, particularly for disease prevention or control. These strategies are rabies, have been identified in six genera of fruit bats directed largely at disease minimization through good farm (McColl et al. 2000; Van der Poel et al. 2000), but most management practices, reducing the potential for exposure other reports have been concerned with various flaviviruses, including West Nile (Paul et al. 1970) and Kyasanur Forest Correspondence to: John S. Mackenzie, Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia (Pavri and Singh 1968), and with two unidentified para- (e-mail: [email protected]). myxoviruses (Pavri et al. 1971; Henderson et al. 1995). Of ª 2003 The Society for Applied Microbiology 60S J.S. MACKENZIE ET AL. the two paramyxoviruses, one was isolated from a Rousette the horses, and subsequently from kidney tissue from the fruit bat (Rousettus leschenaulti) in India (Pavri et al. 1971) fatal human case. The virus was named equine morbillivirus and was later identified as a new animal subtype of on the basis of a weak one-way cross-reaction with rinderpest parainfluenza virus (PIV) type 2, and the other, Mapuera virus, but was subsequently renamed Hendra virus (after the virus, a member of the genus Rubulavirus, was isolated from Brisbane suburb where the outbreak occurred). a Yellow-shouldered bat (Sturnira lilium) captured in the A second small outbreak in Mackay, about 1000 km north tropical rain forest of Brazil in 1979 (Henderson et al. 1995). of Brisbane, came to light about 12 months later, although it Experimentally, fruit bats have been shown to be susceptible actually pre-dated the Hendra outbreak by over a month. to infection with Japanese encephalitis (Banerjee et al. 1979, Two horses died of unknown cause and the farmer, who had 1984) and Ebola (Swanepoel et al. 1996) viruses, the former assisted at necropsy, had a mild meningitic illness, but inducing a sufficient viraemia for onward transmission by recovered. Thirteen months later, however, the farmer mosquitoes (Banerjee et al. 1984) and the latter also became ill and died of a severe encephalitis which was shown producing a viraemia with a high virus titre. However, to be caused by Hendra virus (O’Sullivan et al. 1997). considerable interest has recently been engendered by the Subsequent investigations demonstrated that the horses had emergence of novel viruses from fruit bats in Australia and died of Hendra virus infection (Hooper et al. 1996; Rogers Southeast Asia. This paper describes these viruses and the et al. 1996), and the farmer had been infected at that time, problems in their management. but the virus had presumably remained latent and reacti- vated 13 months later (O’Sullivan et al. 1997). A third incident of equine infection with Hendra virus occurred in 3. EMERGENCE OF THREE NEW VIRUSES January 1999 (Field et al. 2000; Hooper et al. 2000), but IN AUSTRALIA only affecting a single animal. Between 1994 and 1997, three novel zoonotic viruses were An extensive seroepidemiological investigation of wild discovered in Australia associated with fruit bats of the and domestic animals was initiated to find the source of the genus Pteropus (flying foxes); Hendra virus in 1994, ABLV virus (Rogers et al. 1996; Ward et al. 1996; Young et al. in 1996, and Menangle virus in 1997. Their emergence was 1996). The only seropositive animals to be found were unprecedented; no similar multi-emergence of three novel flying foxes (Young et al. 1996, 1997). Indeed antibodies to viruses belonging to two virus families and three genera, and Hendra virus were detected in all four species of flying all isolated from a single host genus, had been reported foxes found in Australia. These are the spectacled flying previously over such a short time frame. fox (Pteropus conspicillatus), which occurs in northern and eastern parts of Queensland; the black flying fox (P. alecto), which has a wide distribution across northern Australia, 3.1 Hendra virus the little red flying fox (P. scapulatus), which is found The first of the three viruses to appear was Hendra virus, across northern and eastern Australia, and the grey-headed previously called equine morbillivirus. A number of recent flying fox (P. poliocephalus), which occurs in eastern and reviews have described the isolation, ecology, epidemiology, south-eastern Australia (Field et al. 2001a,b). Approxi- molecular biology, virion structure and laboratory diagnosis mately 47% of flying foxes sampled over their full of Hendra virus (Daniels et al. 2001, Field et al. 2001a,b; geographical range have been found to have antibodies to Hyatt et al.