Chinese scientists have discovered many hosts of viruses that have never been seen before in bats living near humans. These viruses contain two closely related to the deadly Nipah and Hendra viruses, which can cause severe encephalopathy and respiratory disease in humans.
Published in Plos Pathogens on June 24th, the work highlights the importance of paying attention to bats and other animals living near human populations, avoiding contact with them whenever possible.
Bats are natural reservoirs of many pathogens that can cause human disease, but the full range of bacteria, viruses and other potentially infectious factors is unknown. Previous studies have focused mainly on bat feces rather than internal organs, as they are mostly easy to collect. But it only tells us about the virus that progresses to the feces.
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To investigate pathogens present in bat kidneys, a team led by Yun Feng, the Yunnan Institute of Indigenous Disease Control and Prevention, sampled the kidneys of 10 species of bats collected from Yunnan Province, China. The genetic sequencing revealed 22 viruses, of which 20 were not only unseen before, but also new protozoan parasites and two types of bacteria, one of which was new to science.
Edward Holmes, a study co-author who is a virologist at the University of Sydney in Australia, said focusing on the kidneys is important as focusing on the kidneys can be excreted in the urine and is one of the ways in which urine can infect bat viruses.
“Bats peeing in date palms collecting bowls was the way the Nipah virus first spread from bats to humans,” Holmes told Live Science. Bats in this study lived near orchards near human villages, so there is a risk that contaminated fruits would allow these pathogens to jump to livestock and people.
The two new viruses are closely linked to the NIPAH virus and the Hendra virus (known as Henipaviruses), but are not the cause of concern, Holmes said.
“These newly discovered viruses have not yet been discovered in humans, and there is no evidence that they will infect or appear in humans at this time,” he said. “In theory, they could pose a threat, but there’s no need to worry as there are no human cases.”
However, this finding underscores the importance of sampling bat-like animals that live near human populations. It also helps to monitor populations of humans that may be exposed to these animals and identify potential virus threats before they appear.
“What leads to the pandemic is the interface between increasingly porous animals and humans,” Holmes said. “The pandemic always reflects the way humans disrupt the natural environment. Better surveillance is always important.”
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