Integrating genomic and serological surveillance for geographically targeted control of vampire bat rabies in Central America

Virus genome sequencing is increasingly used in outbreak control.

By combining the evolutionary insights gained from sequence analyses with case data and geographic information, current transmission patterns can be mapped, and risk factors identified to model future scenarios.

Vampire bat rabies (VBR) is a deadly zoonotic disease which continues to threaten human health and exerts a major economic burden via livestock mortality. Persistence of the virus is spatially dependent, dying out if unable to regularly infect new colonies.

In Central America, the narrow landscape intersected by mountain ranges likely restricts the spread of the virus to specific ‘transmission corridors’, where strategic deployment of vaccination could therefore protect wider areas ahead by blocking transmission.

In collaboration with the International Agricultural Health Organisation (OIRSA), we will develop sustainable regional sequencing of livestock VBR in Central America to complement national case surveillance and identify transmission corridors. Predicted transmission corridors will be verified in wild bat populations in Costa Rica with seroprevalence studies.

Meanwhile, the grooming interactions of co-roosting bats will be studied using an ingestible fluorescent biomarker to explore the feasibility of using transferable wildlife vaccines in this setting. Overall, this work will deepen our understanding of VBR transmission and support preventative management.