Bats as a continuing source of emerging infections in humans

Abstract

Amongst the 60 viral species reported to be associated with bats, 59 are RNA viruses, which are potentially important in the generation of emerging and re-emerging infections in humans. The prime examples of these are the lyssaviruses and Henipavirus. The transmission of Nipah, Hendra and perhaps SARS coronavirus and Ebola virus to humans may involve intermediate amplification hosts such as pigs, horses, civets and primates, respectively. Understanding of the natural reservoir or introductory host, the amplifying host, the epidemic centre and at-risk human populations are crucial in the control of emerging zoonosis. The association between the bat coronaviruses and certain lyssaviruses with particular bat species implies co-evolution between specific viruses and bat hosts. Cross-infection between the huge number of bat species may generate new viruses which are able to jump the trans-mammalian species barrier more efficiently. The currently known viruses that have been found in bats are reviewed and the risks of transmission to humans are highlighted. Certain families of bats including the Pteropodidae, Molossidae, Phyllostomidae, and Vespertilionidae are most frequently associated with known human pathogens. A systematic survey of bats is warranted to better understand the ecology of these viruses.

Detection of polyoma and corona viruses in bats of Canada

“…Other studies (Taylor et al, 2001;Woolhouse & Gowtage-Sequeria, 2005) provide similar estimates. Several of the zoonotic viruses that have emerged in various regions of the world in the last two decades are enzootic in bats and are transmitted, albeit infrequently, to humans and domestic animals (reviewed by Calisher et al, 2006;Dobson, 2005;Wong et al, 2007). Economic or sociological conditions that lead to an increase in bat-human contact appear to predispose these cross-species transmissions.…”

Isolation of multiple novel paramyxoviruses from pteropid bat urine

“…In recent years, bats have been found to be the reservoir host of several significant groups of emerging zoonotic viruses including paramyxoviruses, coronaviruses and filoviruses (Calisher et al, 2006;Halpin et al, 2007;Smith & Wang, 2013;Wong et al, 2007). As more zoonotic viruses are linked to bats, identifying novel agents harboured by bats has become increasingly important (Baker et al, 2012(Baker et al, , 2013bLau et al, 2010;Wang et al, 2011).…”

Molecular Cloning and Expression Analysis of Bat Toll-Like Receptors 3, 7 and 9

“…These diseases include rabies, Ebola hemorrhagic fever, Nipah virus infection and probably SARScorona virus infection [4,10,16,17]. In addition, some virus inoculation experiments in bats suggest that many of the bat-associated pathogens cause no clinicopathology in the bats themselves or cause less damage than is seen in other animals [6,8,13,15].…”