| Title | Distant relatives of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus and close relatives of human coronavirus 229E in bats, Ghana. | ||
| Author | Pfefferle, Susanne; Oppong, Samuel; Drexler, Jan Felix; Gloza-Rausch, Florian; Ipsen, Anne; Seebens, Antje; Muller, Marcel A; Annan, Augustina; Vallo, Peter; Adu-Sarkodie, Yaw; Kruppa, Thomas F; Drosten, Christian | ||
| Journal | Emerg Infect Dis | Publication Year/Month | 2009-Sep |
| PMID | 19788804 | PMCID | PMC2819850 |
| Affiliation | 1.Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany. | ||
We tested 12 bat species in Ghana for coronavirus (CoV) RNA. The virus prevalence in insectivorous bats (n = 123) was 9.76%. CoV was not detected in 212 fecal samples from Eidolon helvum fruit bats. Leaf-nosed bats pertaining to Hipposideros ruber by morphology had group 1 and group 2 CoVs. Virus concentrations were < or =45,000 copies/100 mg of bat feces. The diversified group 1 CoV shared a common ancestor with the human common cold virus hCoV-229E but not with hCoV-NL63, disputing hypotheses of common human descent. The most recent common ancestor of hCoV-229E and GhanaBt-CoVGrp1 existed in approximately 1686-1800 ad. The GhanaBt-CoVGrp2 shared an old ancestor (approximately 2,400 years) with the severe acute respiratory syndrome-like group of CoV.