VIROLOGIC AND SEROLOGIC SURVEY FOR EASTERN EQUINE ENCEPHALOMYELITIS AND CERTAIN OTHER VIRUSES IN COLONIAL BATS OF NEW ENGLAND

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Abstract
Hibernating colonial bats may serve as an overwintering reservoir host of eastern equine encephalomyelitis (EEE) and certain other arthropod-borne viruses in southern New England. Bats (1128) of 4 spp. were collected from 1966-1976. Blood and tissue samples and ectoparasites from these bats were tested in suckling mice, wet chicks and/or chick-embryo tissue cultures for virus. Rabies, the only virus isolated, was recovered from the brain, salivary glands and brown fat of an apparently healthy adult male Myotis keenii found hibernating in western Massachusetts. EEE neutralizing antibody was detected in 1.3% of the adult bats tested. A significant difference was noted between prevalence of antibody in hibernating (0.3%) and non-hibernating (3.4%) bats tested during the first 4 yr of this study. One of 26 (3.8%) sera neutralized California encephalitis virus and no neutralizing or hemagglutination-inhibition antibody was detected with western equine encephalomyelitis virus.

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