MOLECULAR DETECTION OF HEPATITIS A (HAV) AND B (HBV) VIRUSES IN BATS IN THE STATE OF PARÁ
Pará, virus, health, bats.
Brazil is home to 15% of all bat species on planet Earth, with 178 species, of which 10 are considered endemic to the national territory. A wide variety of viral pathogens can be isolated and/or detected from bats, and they are highly relevant to Public Health, as they are capable of transmitting important viruses to other animals and/or humans; the interaction and transmission occur mainly through changes in the natural habitat of these animals, which begin to frequent urban environments more due to the manipulation of their natural environment. Among the Viral Hepatitis present in bats are type A (caused by the Hepatitis A Virus (HAV)) and type B (Hepatitis B Virus (HBV)). HAV is a Picornavirus, genus Hepatovirus, with single-stranded RNA that can affect humans, primates and bats; its transmission is oro-fecal and it is believed that its replication occurs mainly inside the hepatocytes of its hosts. HBV belongs to the Hepadnaviridae family and is capable of infecting birds, humans, monkeys and bats; HBV is a non-cytopathic DNA virus transmitted by contaminated blood and body fluids and has a high worldwide distribution. Research on HAV and HBV in bats present in the State of Pará is of great importance for elucidating their occurrence in the region. Approximately 150 bats will be captured, euthanized and their liver samples will be subjected to molecular analysis (Heminested RT-PCR) for detection of HAV and HBV at the Evandro Chagas Institute (Ananindeua). The amplicons of the positive samples will be purified and sequenced in the forward and reverse directions in an automated manner. The nucleotide sequences obtained with the BioEdit software v.7.0.5.3 and the BLAST tool will be compared with other HAV and HBV sequences from humans and animals available in the GenBank data. The phylogenetic analysis among the isolates will be developed in the MEGA program and by the Neighbor-Joining and Maximum-likelihood methods to determine the isolated genotypes and subtypes. The results of molecular prevalence will be presented in the format of descriptive statistics, as well as the statistical verification between the species, sex and place of procedure.