Japanese

Genome sequencing and virulence studies of 2 Jap-anese encephalitis viruses (JEVs) from bats in Yunnan, China, showed a close relationship with JEVs isolated from mosquitoes and humans in the same region over 2 decades. These results indicate that bats may play a role in human Japanese encephalitis outbreaks in this region. Bats have been increasingly recognized as an important source of zoonotic viruses responsible for some of the recent major disease outbreaks, including Hendra, Nipah, severe acute respiratory syndrome–associated, and Ebola viruses (1). Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is a mem-ber of the family Flaviviridae and the genus Flavivirus (2) and is the etiologic agent of severe encephalitic diseases in humans. In addition to humans, JEV has been isolated from various hosts, e.g., mosquitoes, birds, pigs, and horses (3,4). The role of bats in JEV epidemiology has been poor