Provision of Proteomic Tissue Profiling of Bats Positive for Lyssaviruses

This research will enable the delivery of APHA's Defra funded research (SE0571 Investigating the Epidemiology and Transmission of European Bat Lyssavirus 1 in the UK) to further our understanding of the increasing cases of bat rabies due to EBLV-1 in the Southwest of England. Funding for this research has been agreed by Treasury and championed by a range of UK stakeholders (Defra, UKHSA and Devolved departments, Natural England, Bat Conservation Trust). Furthering our understanding of host population genetics and serotine genome (University of Exeter) using state of the art molecular approaches, combined with studies of bat host responses to EBLV infection (University of Liverpool) and host ecology (University of Sussex) will uniquely offer clues to understand the emergence and sustainability of this potentially fatal zoonotic disease in the UK.