Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
J Virol. 2010 Dec;84(24):13004-18. doi: 10.1128/JVI.01255-10. Epub 2010 Oct 6.
Effective prediction of future viral zoonoses requires an in-depth understanding of the heterologous viral population in key animal species that will likely serve as reservoir hosts or intermediates during the next viral epidemic. The importance of bats as natural hosts for several important viral zoonoses, including Ebola, Marburg, Nipah, Hendra, and rabies viruses and severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus (SARS-CoV), has been established; however, the large viral population diversity (virome) of bats has been partially determined for only a few of the ∼1,200 bat species. To assess the virome of North American bats, we collected fecal, oral, urine, and tissue samples from individual bats captured at an abandoned railroad tunnel in Maryland that is cohabitated by 7 to 10 different bat species. Here, we present preliminary characterization of the virome of three common North American bat species, including big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus), tricolored bats (Perimyotis subflavus), and little brown myotis (Myotis lucifugus). In samples derived from these bats, we identified viral sequences that were similar to at least three novel group 1 CoVs, large numbers of insect and plant virus sequences, and nearly full-length genomic sequences of two novel bacteriophages. These observations suggest that bats encounter and disseminate a large assortment of viruses capable of infecting many different animals, insects, and plants in nature.
有效预测未来的人畜共患病需要深入了解关键动物物种中的异源病毒群体，这些动物物种很可能在下次病毒流行期间充当储主宿主或中间宿主。蝙蝠作为几种重要人畜共患病（包括埃博拉病毒、马尔堡病毒、尼帕病毒、亨德拉病毒和狂犬病病毒以及严重急性呼吸系统综合征冠状病毒（SARS-CoV））的天然宿主的重要性已得到确立；然而，仅有少数约 1200 种蝙蝠物种的病毒种群多样性（病毒组）得到了部分确定。为了评估北美的蝙蝠病毒组，我们从马里兰州一个废弃的铁路隧道中捕获的 7 到 10 种不同蝙蝠物种的个体采集了粪便、口腔、尿液和组织样本。在这里，我们初步描述了三种常见的北美蝙蝠物种（包括大褐蝙蝠（Eptesicus fuscus）、三色蝙蝠（Perimyotis subflavus）和小褐蝙蝠（Myotis lucifugus））的病毒组。在这些蝙蝠的样本中，我们鉴定出了与至少三种新型 1 组 CoV、大量昆虫和植物病毒序列以及两种新型噬菌体的全长基因组序列相似的病毒序列。这些观察结果表明，蝙蝠在自然界中遇到并传播了大量能够感染许多不同动物、昆虫和植物的病毒。
