A comparative study of rabies virus isolates from hematophagous bats in Brazil.

The Brazilian chiropteran fauna consists of 167 species; of which, three are hematophagous: the common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus), the white-winged vampire bat (Diaemus youngi), and the hairy-legged vampire bat (Diphylla ecaudata). The aim of this study was to describe the isolation of Rabies virus from common and hairy-legged vampire bats and to report the first comparative antigenic and genetic studies of isolates from these bats. Antigenic and genetic typing of both isolates identified them as antigenic variant 3 (AgV3), the variant frequently isolated from common vampire bats.