Bat Astroviruses: Towards Understanding the Transmission Dynamics of a Neglected Virus Family

Abstract

Bats belong to the order Chiroptera that represents the second largest order of mammals with more than 1200 species and an almost global distribution. Environmental changes and deforestation have severely influenced many ecosystems, intensifying the contact between wildlife and humans. In recent years, bats have been found to harbor a number of different viruses with zoonotic potential, as well as a great diversity of astroviruses, for which the question of zoonotic potential remains unanswered to date. Human astroviruses have been identified as the causative agent for diarrhea in children and immunocompromised patients. For a long time, astroviruses have been considered to be strictly species-specific. However, a great genetic diversity has recently been discovered among animal and human astroviruses that might indicate the potential of these viruses to cross species barriers. Furthermore, our knowledge about the tissue tropism of astroviruses has been expanded to some neurotropic strains that have recently been shown to be responsible for encephalitis in humans and livestock. This review gives an overview on what is known about astroviruses in bats, humans and livestock, especially bovines and pigs. Future research activities are suggested to unravel astrovirus infection dynamics in bat populations to further assess the zoonotic potential of these viruses.

Influence of age and body condition on astrovirus infection of bats in Singapore: An evolutionary and epidemiological analysis

“…This is the first report of bat astroviruses from Singapore and the first report of astrovirus infection in Rhinolophus lepidus. Previous surveillance efforts have demonstrated variable rates of astrovirus infection from diverse bat species, including those tested here [38]. Astroviruses have been detected from ten other species of Rhinolophus bats in previous studies [39][40][41][42][43].…”

Can extreme MHC class I diversity be a feature of a wide geographic range? The example of Seba’s short-tailed bat (Carollia perspicillata)

“…Bat-borne coronavirus (CoV; family Coronaviridae) species are the progenitors of the viruses that have caused severe epidemics of acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) with high fatality rates in humans (reviewed by Banerjee et al 2019). Bats also host astroviruses (AstV; family Astroviridae (Fischer et al 2017), which are related to human strains (Chu et al 2008) causing infectious diarrhoea in children, in the elderly and in immunocompromised people (Donato and Vijaykrishna 2017).…”

Astrovirus infections induce age-dependent dysbiosis in gut microbiomes of bats

“…As in humans, a remarkably high AstV-prevalence, viral genetic diversity and inferred zoonotic potential has been reported for bats. Contrary to inbred mouse lines, bats exhibit comparable genomic background diversity as humans [1,9,10]. Additionally, bat species can live in diverse habitats, including disturbed ones, and thus come into frequent contact with humans and their livestock.…”