Virus diversity, wildlife-domestic animal circulation and potential zoonotic viruses of small mammals, pangolins and zoo animals

Abstract

Wildlife is reservoir of emerging viruses. Here we identified 27 families of mammalian viruses from 1981 wild animals and 194 zoo animals collected from south China between 2015 and 2022, isolated and characterized the pathogenicity of eight viruses. Bats harbor high diversity of coronaviruses, picornaviruses and astroviruses, and a potentially novel genus of Bornaviridae. In addition to the reported SARSr-CoV-2 and HKU4-CoV-like viruses, picornavirus and respiroviruses also likely circulate between bats and pangolins. Pikas harbor a new clade of Embecovirus and a new genus of arenaviruses. Further, the potential cross-species transmission of RNA viruses (paramyxovirus and astrovirus) and DNA viruses (pseudorabies virus, porcine circovirus 2, porcine circovirus 3 and parvovirus) between wildlife and domestic animals was identified, complicating wildlife protection and the prevention and control of these diseases in domestic animals. This study provides a nuanced view of the frequency of host-jumping events, as well as assessments of zoonotic risk.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as a form of human–wildlife conflict: Why and how nondomesticated species should be incorporated into AMR guidance

“…This absence of wildlife in AMR guidance seems counterintuitive, considering that recent disease outbreaks have demonstrated how influential wildlife is in the spread, divergence, and containment of One Health challenges (Otu et al, 2021;Shaheen, 2022). We are yet to determine the exact source of COVID-19, but it is strongly suggested the virus originated in bats (Cui et al, 2023;Yang et al, 2023;Zhou et al, 2020) spreading to an intermediate host, the pangolin (Choo et al, 2020;Yang et al, 2023) before spilling over into humans via wet food markets (Nga et al, 2022;Wu et al, 2020). Pangolins are a globally exploited wildlife trade victim.…”

“…After capture in the wild, they are often subject to poor hygiene and welfare conditions during captive breeding and transit to wet markets for live trade (Challender et al, 2019; Zhang et al, 2022). These situations facilitate incubation and spread of disease within species, plus routes of spillover into humans and domesticated animals once in captivity (Cui et al, 2023; Nga et al, 2022; Zhang et al, 2022). The presumed transmission pathway of COVID‐19 exemplifies how the exploitation and trade of wild species can provide pathways for novel and (re)emerging diseases to spill over into humans (Aguirre et al, 2020; Walsh et al, 2020).…”

“…The consequences of this are relatively unknown but are likely to include increased exposure of all species to both novel microbes and the drivers of AMR. In combination, this may result in increased selection pressure for resistance (Cui et al, 2023; Dolejska & Literak, 2019; Palmeira et al, 2021; Ramey & Ahlstrom, 2020). What is clear is that wildlife is an unavoidable, but necessary, component within our One Health understanding of AMR (Figure 1).…”

“…Wildlife and the infectious microbes they host are frequently exposed to such stressors due to climate change, pollution, and habitat loss (Bresalier et al, 2015; Kutz et al, 2009; Otu et al, 2021; Swift et al, 2019). Many of these interactions result from or can develop into conflict between humans and wildlife for access to resources including habitats, water, territories, and food, but they can also lead to the spillover of diseases between wild, domesticated, and human populations (Cui et al, 2023; Greig et al, 2015; Skarżyńska et al, 2021). Thus, lack of engagement with AMR drivers in wildlife could thus mean we are missing key developments in microbial evolution, transmission pathways for the (re)emergence of infectious pathogens, and hidden impacts of human–wildlife conflict (HWC).…”

Persistent paramyxovirus infections: in co-infections the parainfluenza virus type 5 persistent phenotype is dominant over the lytic phenotype

“…PIV5 (for a general review on the biology and molecular biology of PIV5 see [10]) is clearly a very successful virus, in that, unusually for most viruses, it readily crosses species barriers. It has been isolated from, and/or nucleotide sequences have been detected in, humans [11][12][13][14], monkeys [15][16][17], dogs [18], cattle [19,20], pigs [21][22][23][24][25], tigers [26,27], lesser panda [27] and pangolins [28], and there is some evidence that PIV5 may infect cats, hamsters, rats and guinea pigs [15]; a very OPEN ACCESS closely related virus, Alston virus, has also been isolated from an Australian pteropid bat colony [29]. However, despite the fact that PIV5 infections appear to be endemic in at least dogs, cattle, pigs and humans, its association with disease is not clear.…”