Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Persistence of Multiple Paramyxoviruses in a Closed Captive Colony of Fruit Bats (Eidolon helvum)

Louise Gibson
ORCID logo ,
Maria Puig Rebas
,
James Kemp
ORCID logo ,
Olivier Restif
,
Richard D. Suu-Ire
,
James L.N. Wood
,
Andrew Alexander Cunningham
* ORCID logo
Version 1 : Received: 19 July 2021 / Approved: 20 July 2021 / Online: 20 July 2021 (16:05:26 CEST)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Gibson, L.; Ribas, M.P.; Kemp, J.; Restif, O.; Suu-Ire, R.D.; Wood, J.L.N.; Cunningham, A.A. Persistence of Multiple Paramyxoviruses in a Closed Captive Colony of Fruit Bats (Eidolon helvum). Viruses 2021, 13, 1659. Gibson, L.; Ribas, M.P.; Kemp, J.; Restif, O.; Suu-Ire, R.D.; Wood, J.L.N.; Cunningham, A.A. Persistence of Multiple Paramyxoviruses in a Closed Captive Colony of Fruit Bats (Eidolon helvum). Viruses 2021, 13, 1659.

Abstract

Bats have been identified as the natural hosts of several emerging zoonotic viruses, including paramyxoviruses, such as Hendra and Nipah viruses, that can cause fatal disease in humans. Recently, African fruit bats with populations that roost in or near urban areas have been shown to harbour a great diversity of paramyxoviruses, posing potential spillover risks to public health. Understanding the circulation of these viruses in their reservoir populations is essential to predict and prevent future emerging diseases. Here, we identify a high incidence of multiple paramyxoviruses in urine samples collected from a closed, captive colony of circa. 115 straw-coloured fruit bats (Eidolon helvum). The sequences detected have high nucleotide identities with those derived from free ranging African fruit bats and form phylogenetic clusters with the Henipavirus genus, Pararubulavirus genus and other unclassified paramyxoviruses. As this colony had been closed for 5 years prior to this study, these results indicate that within-host paramyxoviral persistence underlies the role of bats as reservoirs of these viruses.

Keywords

chiroptera; Pteropodidae; longitudinal study; Henipavirus; Pararubulavirus

Subject

Biology and Life Sciences, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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