Biography

Rochelle Rademan is currently a research student at the University of Pretoria, in the Department of Medical Virology. She belongs to the Biosurveillance and Ecology of Emerging Zoonoses (BEEZ) research group in the Centre of Viral Zoonoses. She completed her undergraduate degree in Microbiology and her BSc Honours in Medical virology with honorary colours for academics. She is also a proud member of the Golden Key International Honour Society and was awarded the Lasec Biochemistry Prize for the best final-year student in Biochemistry in 2017.

She has always been interested in viral zoonoses because of its importance for public human and animal health. She believes surveillance and characterization of viral pathogens circulating in animal populations can further our understanding of the virus, its epidemiology, and zoonotic risk. Research findings can also contribute to mitigation strategies that will not only prevent disease outbreak but may improve conservation efforts of wildlife species.

Discipline/s

Microbiology

Medical virology

Research description

Detection and phylogenetic characterization of influenza A virus in the Egyptian fruit bat in Limpopo, South Africa.

The Egyptian fruit bat typically roosts in caves near fruiting trees, orchards, or agricultural areas, indicating a potential point of contact with humans. Therefore, the research project focused on the design and optimization of an influenza A virus (IAV) nucleic acid detection assay, to determine the IAV diversity circulating in an Egyptian fruit bat colony in the Ga Mafefe region in Limpopo, South Africa. Results indicate the presence of an IAV highly similar to the H9N2 bat-influenza virus previously isolated from Egyptian fruit bats in Egypt, 2019.Furthermore, a comparison of the predicted protein sequences indicated some amino acid difference between the H9N2 bat-viruses. This study emphasized the importance of surveillance to determine virus distribution and diversity.

The findings of this study can also be integrated into the science outreach and collaboration activities with the rural community of the Ga Mafefe region, to increase the awareness of zoonotic risk and to highlight the importance of mitigation strategies to prevent disease outbreak but also to improve conservation of ecologically important species.

Orchid ID

Research gate