Lagos bat virus is a lyssavirus

Lyssavirus

Lyssavirus is a genus of viruses belonging to the family Rhabdoviridae, in the order Mononegavirales. This group of RNA viruses includes the Rabies virus traditionally associated with the disease.-Structure:Viruses typically have either helical or cubic symmetry...

 of southern and central Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

 that causes a rabies

Rabies

Rabies is a viral disease that causes acute encephalitis in warm-blooded animals. It is zoonotic , most commonly by a bite from an infected animal. For a human, rabies is almost invariably fatal if post-exposure prophylaxis is not administered prior to the onset of severe symptoms...

-like illness in mammals. It was first isolated from a fruit bat

Fruit Bat

Fruit Bat can refer to:* Megabats, a species of bat which eats fruit* Les "Fruitbat" Carter, guitarist of Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine* Fruit Bats , an American band...

 (Eidolon helvum) from Lagos Island

Lagos Island

Lagos Island is the principal and central local government area of the Metropolitan Lagos in Nigeria. It is part of the Lagos Division. As of the preliminary 2006 Nigerian census, the LGA had a population of 209,437 in an area of 8.7 km²...

, Nigeria

Nigeria

Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

 in 1956. Brain samples from the bat showed poor cross-reactivity

Cross-reactivity

Cross-reactivity is the reaction between an antibody and an antigen that differs from the immunogen. It is sometimes also referred to as crossimmunity or cross-protective immunity...

 to rabies antibodies

Antibody

An antibody, also known as an immunoglobulin, is a large Y-shaped protein used by the immune system to identify and neutralize foreign objects such as bacteria and viruses. The antibody recognizes a unique part of the foreign target, termed an antigen...

 but the virus was found to be closely related to the rabies virus. This was the first discovery of a rabies-related virus

Virus

A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea...

. Until this time, rabies was thought to have a single causal agent. Four more lyssavirus species and numerous tentative species have since been identified.

Lagos bat virus has been isolated from wild and domestic mammals in southern Africa including bats, cats and one dog. One isolate was made in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 in 1999 when a fruit bat (Rousettus egypticus), which had been displaying signs of aggression, died. The bat had been imported from Africa.

No human cases of Lagos bat virus infection have been documented.