key: cord-1031294-3gdlk36h authors: Ngay Lukusa, Ipos; Takuo, Jean-Michel; Lumbu Banza, Christelle; Le Doux Diffo, Joseph; Mbala Kingebeni, Placide; Ntumvi, Nkom F.; Atibu Losoma, Joseph; Tamoufe, Ubald; Gillis, Amethyst; LeBreton, Matthew; Ayukekbong, James; Joly, Damien O.; Schneider, Brad S.; Monagin, Corina; Makuwa, Maria; Wolfe, Nathan D.; Rubin, Edward M.; Muyembe-Tamfum, Jean-Jacques; Lange, Christian E. title: Enterovirus Sequence Data Obtained from Primate Samples in Central Africa Suggest a High Prevalence of Enteroviruses date: 2021-12-09 journal: Microbiology resource announcements DOI: 10.1128/mra.00882-21 sha: fb016cf8aed839422bd39d9e01b09e6b02c5388c doc_id: 1031294 cord_uid: 3gdlk36h Enteroviruses infect humans and animals and can cause disease, and some may be transmitted across species barriers. We tested Central African wildlife and found Enterovirus RNA in primates (17) and rodents (2). Some sequences were very similar, while others were dissimilar to known species, highlighting the underexplored enterovirus diversity in wildlife. 1.4.4 (7, 8) . Samples for which no RNA of the expected size could be amplified and sequenced were counted as negative. Enterovirus RNA was detected in 17 NHPs and 2 rodents ( Table 1 ). The sequences fall into four phylogenetic clusters, one of them coinciding with the species enterovirus B, one clustering with enterovirus C and D sequences, one related to enterovirus L, and one clustering with unclassified enteroviruses from rodent and primate hosts ( Fig. 1 ; Table 1 ). The detection of Enterovirus RNA in almost 20% of the sampled NHPs supports previous findings that suggest a high prevalence of enteroviruses among primates (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) . Even though attempts with multiple assays failed to produce sequence beyond the 59 noncoding region, the results suggest that the diversity of NHP enteroviruses needs further exploration. Enteroviruses can be transmitted between humans and NHPs, and contact between these two is not uncommon across many parts of Central Africa, which is of concern (12, 13). The RNAs detected in the rodents suggests the presence of two novel enterovirus species, given their low sequence similarity and phylogenetic placement; however, in the absence of full genomic sequence information, classification is not possible. Despite having tested many bats in the study, we did not detect enterovirus RNA in any of them. Bats, which are hosts of many zoonotic viruses, including rabies and coronaviruses, can be experimentally infected with enteroviruses, but reports of genuine bat enteroviruses are sparse, unlike reports of other bat picornaviruses (4, 8, (17) (18) (19) (20) (21) (22) . We conclude that Central African bats may either not host many enteroviruses or that the enteroviruses that infect bats are genetically divergent enough from the known species to evade PCR detection with the primers used in this study. Data availability. The partial genomic sequences described are deposited in GenBank under accession numbers MK215161 to MK215165, MK215167, MK215168, MK215173 to MK215181, MK215184, MK215188, and MK215192. The raw data from the collected samples and sampling maps are available at the Zenodo repository (https:// zenodo.org/record/5528104). We thank the governments of Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo for permission to conduct this study, as well as the JACK Sanctuary in Lubumbashi and the National Institute of Biomedical Research (DRC) and the Limbe Wildlife Centre and the Military Health Research Center (Cameroon) for their engagement. We also thank Prime Mulembakani Mangombo, Kimberly Dodd, Christine Hercik, Joseph Fair, and all other involved members of the PREDICT-1 consortium for their contributions (https:// ohi.sf.ucdavis.edu/programs-projects/predict-project/authorship). The study was undertaken as part of the global Emerging Pandemic Threats (EPT) PREDICT project, which focuses on enhancing the global capacity for the detection and discovery of potentially zoonotic viruses at the human-animal interface. It was made possible by the generous support of the American people through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) (cooperative agreement number GHN-A-OO-09-00010-00). The contents are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government. 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