[IFE: a new African orbivirus isolated from Eidolon helvum bats captured in Nigeria, Cameroon and the Central African Republic].

Eight viral isolates were recovered from Eidolon helvum bats collected in Nigeria and Cameroon in 1971 and from the Central African Republic in 1974. Subsequent studies showed that the agents from the three countries were similar and were strains of a new virus of the Orbivirus genus, family Reoviridae. This new virus was characterized with respect to its sensitivity to lipid solvents and to pH, its relative size and morphology by electron microscopy, its effect on mice experimentally infected by various routes, the histopathology found in infected mice, and its antigenic relationship or lack of a relationship to other known orbiviruses.