Rare dental anomalies in two sympatric European bat species (Pipistrellus spp.)

Over the past twenty years, we documented striking non-lethal anomalies in the dentition of the common pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pipistrellus) during field work in various parts of Germany. In 2019 we got knowledge of two bat nurslings (P. pipistrellus, P. pygmaeus) from the Rhine-Main area (Hesse, Germany) with ultimately fatal dental anomalies. The aberrations were documented with high-resolution X-ray techniques. Here we discuss our results in the context of published, but mostly minor and obvious non-lethal teeth anomalies in bats

The German National Registry of Primary Immunodeficiencies (2012-2017)

Introduction: The German PID-NET registry was founded in 2009, serving as the first national registry of patients with primary immunodeficiencies (PID) in Germany. It is part of the European Society for Immunodeficiencies (ESID) registry. The primary purpose of the registry is to gather data on the epidemiology, diagnostic delay, diagnosis, and treatment of PIDs. Methods: Clinical and laboratory data was collected from 2,453 patients from 36 German PID centres in an online registry. Data was analysed with the software Stata® and Excel. Results: The minimum prevalence of PID in Germany is 2.72 per 100,000 inhabitants. Among patients aged 1–25, there was a clear predominance of males. The median age of living patients ranged between 7 and 40 years, depending on the respective PID. Predominantly antibody disorders were the most prevalent group with 57% of all 2,453 PID patients (including 728 CVID patients). A gene defect was identified in 36% of patients. Familial cases were observed in 21% of patients. The age of onset for presenting symptoms ranged from birth to late adulthood (range 0–88 years). Presenting symptoms comprised infections (74%) and immune dysregulation (22%). Ninety-three patients were diagnosed without prior clinical symptoms. Regarding the general and clinical diagnostic delay, no PID had undergone a slight decrease within the last decade. However, both, SCID and hyper IgE- syndrome showed a substantial improvement in shortening the time between onset of symptoms and genetic diagnosis. Regarding treatment, 49% of all patients received immunoglobulin G (IgG) substitution (70%—subcutaneous; 29%—intravenous; 1%—unknown). Three-hundred patients underwent at least one hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Five patients had gene therapy. Conclusion: The German PID-NET registry is a precious tool for physicians, researchers, the pharmaceutical industry, politicians, and ultimately the patients, for whom the outcomes will eventually lead to a more timely diagnosis and better treatment

Enhanced Passive Bat Rabies Surveillance in Indigenous Bat Species from Germany - A Retrospective Study

<div><p>In Germany, rabies in bats is a notifiable zoonotic disease, which is caused by European bat lyssaviruses type 1 and 2 (EBLV-1 and 2), and the recently discovered new lyssavirus species Bokeloh bat lyssavirus (BBLV). As the understanding of bat rabies in insectivorous bat species is limited, in addition to routine bat rabies diagnosis, an enhanced passive surveillance study, i.e. the retrospective investigation of dead bats that had not been tested for rabies, was initiated in 1998 to study the distribution, abundance and epidemiology of lyssavirus infections in bats from Germany. A total number of 5478 individuals representing 21 bat species within two families were included in this study. The Noctule bat (<i>Nyctalus noctula</i>) and the Common pipistrelle (<i>Pipistrellus pipistrellus</i>) represented the most specimens submitted. Of all investigated bats, 1.17% tested positive for lyssaviruses using the fluorescent antibody test (FAT). The vast majority of positive cases was identified as EBLV-1, predominately associated with the Serotine bat (<i>Eptesicus serotinus</i>). However, rabies cases in other species, i.e. Nathusius' pipistrelle bat (<i>Pipistrellus nathusii</i>), <i>P. pipistrellus</i> and Brown long-eared bat (<i>Plecotus auritus</i>) were also characterized as EBLV-1. In contrast, EBLV-2 was isolated from three Daubenton's bats (<i>Myotis daubentonii</i>). These three cases contribute significantly to the understanding of EBLV-2 infections in Germany as only one case had been reported prior to this study. This enhanced passive surveillance indicated that besides known reservoir species, further bat species are affected by lyssavirus infections. Given the increasing diversity of lyssaviruses and bats as reservoir host species worldwide, lyssavirus positive specimens, i.e. both bat and virus need to be confirmed by molecular techniques.</p></div

Number of bat samples per species investigated using FAT, RTCIT, RT-qPCR and RT-PCR.

<p>Number of bat samples per species investigated using FAT, RTCIT, RT-qPCR and RT-PCR.</p

Map showing federal states of Germany (a) and geographical origin of all bat specimens coming from Schleswig-Holstein (SH, N = 362); Bremen (HB, N = 4), Hamburg (HH, N = 10), Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (MWP, N = 131), Lower Saxony (LS, N = 1252), Berlin (B, N = 484), Brandenburg (BRB, N = 644), Saxony-Anhalt (ST, N = 692), Saxony (SN, N = 247), North Rhine Westphalia (NRW, N = 76), Hesse (HE, N = 89), Thuringia (TH, N = 296), Rhineland-Palatinate (RP, N = 108), Saarland (SL, N = 53), Baden-Wuerttemberg (BW, N = 736), Bavaria (BY, N = 252) (b) and of <i>E. serotinus</i> (c) collected in the study described here, and of the bat rabies cases (dot (N = 46): <i>E. serotinus</i>, triangle (N = 3): <i>M. daubentonii</i>, square (N = 3): <i>P. pipistrellus, P. nathusii and Pl. auritus</i> (d).

<p>Map showing federal states of Germany (a) and geographical origin of all bat specimens coming from Schleswig-Holstein (SH, N = 362); Bremen (HB, N = 4), Hamburg (HH, N = 10), Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (MWP, N = 131), Lower Saxony (LS, N = 1252), Berlin (B, N = 484), Brandenburg (BRB, N = 644), Saxony-Anhalt (ST, N = 692), Saxony (SN, N = 247), North Rhine Westphalia (NRW, N = 76), Hesse (HE, N = 89), Thuringia (TH, N = 296), Rhineland-Palatinate (RP, N = 108), Saarland (SL, N = 53), Baden-Wuerttemberg (BW, N = 736), Bavaria (BY, N = 252) (b) and of <i>E. serotinus</i> (c) collected in the study described here, and of the bat rabies cases (dot (N = 46): <i>E. serotinus</i>, triangle (N = 3): <i>M. daubentonii</i>, square (N = 3): <i>P. pipistrellus, P. nathusii and Pl. auritus</i> (d).</p

Number of bat specimens tested (N = 3714, black) and rabies cases (N = 46, grey) per month during 1998 until June 2013.

<p>Number of bat specimens tested (N = 3714, black) and rabies cases (N = 46, grey) per month during 1998 until June 2013.</p

Evolutionary relationships of EBLV-1 (a) and EBLV-2 strains (b) with a focus on 400 nucleotides long N-gene sequences (nt positions 1–400, numbering according to EF157976) derived from this study (boldface).

<p>The Neighbor-Joining method (p-distance, 1000 pseudoreplicates) as implemented in MEGA 5 was used. Sequence number 998 LS represents the identical sequences 959, 5300, 5304, 7471, 7467, 11647, 15730, 16902, 16908, 18720, 21836, 24525, 24529, 24832, 25495, 31054.</p