Bats are natural reservoirs for a spectrum of infectious
zoonotic diseases including the recently emerged henipaviruses (Hendra and Nipah viruses). Henipaviruses have been observed both naturally and experimentally to cause serious and often fatal disease in many different mammal species, including humans. Interestingly,
infection of the flying fox with henipaviruses occurs in the absence of clinical disease. The extreme variation in the disease pattern between humans and bats has led to an investigation into the effects of
henipavirus infection on the innate immune response in bat cell lines. We report that
henipavirus infection does not result in the induction of
interferon expression, and the viruses also inhibit
interferon signaling. We also confirm that the
interferon production and signaling block in bat cells is not due to differing
viral protein expression levels between human and bat hosts. This information, in addition to the known lack of clinical signs in bats following
henipavirus infection, suggests that bats control
henipavirus infection by an as yet unidentified mechanism, not via the
interferon response. This is the first report of
henipavirus infection in bat cells specifically investigating aspects of the innate immune system.