This new information indicates that the unique population of freely mixing bats across the entire continent facilitates the spread of the viruses
- Professor James Wood
The study, conducted jointly by the University of Cambridge and the Zoological Society of London’s Institute of Zoology and published in the journal Nature Communications, found that the “gregarious” bats span over 4,500 km of central Africa (around the distance from California to New York). The researchers also discovered that thirty-four per cent of the bats had been infected with Lagos bat virus, a disease similar to rabies, and 42 per cent had been infected with henipaviruses.
The African straw-coloured fruit bat (Eidolon helvum), which can live in roosts of over one million and often congregates near cities, was previously known to be a reservoir for these viruses, but it was not known to what extent.
For the study, the researchers tested over 2,000 bats in 12 different countries across Africa, measuring DNA from blood and tissue samples. They discovered that the bats were largely genetically similar, meaning that they travelled and mated across the continent without any evidence of population subgroups or specific migratory patterns – the largest example of this freely mixing population structure ever found in mammals. The species’ homogeneity and extensive movement means that the two viruses can be spread easily.
Professor James Wood, the study’s senior author from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Veterinary Medicine, said: “We now not only know how widespread viral infections are in this bat population, but we also know much more about its population structure. This new information indicates that the unique population of freely mixing bats across the entire continent facilitates the spread of the viruses. This has important implications for the monitoring of these viruses in order to prevent its spread to other animals, including humans.”
Read the full story
Image: Bats
Credit: James Wood
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
_______________________________________________________