Association of batai virus infection and encephalitis in Harbor Seals, Germany, 2016

Abstract

We isolated Batai virus from the brain of a euthanized, 26-year-old, captive harbor seal with meningoencepha-lomyelitis in Germany. We provide evidence that this orthobunyavirus can naturally infect the central nervous system of a mammal. The full-genome sequence showed differences from a previously reported virus isolate from a mosquito in Germany.