CIRAD, UMR ASTRE, RP-PCP, Harare, Zimbabwe.
ASTRE, Uni. Montpellier, CIRAD, INRA, 34398 Montpellier, France.
Viruses. 2018 Oct 9;10(10):549. doi: 10.3390/v10100549.
The maintenance mechanisms of ebolaviruses in African forest ecosystems are still unknown, but indirect evidences point at the involvement of some bat species. Despite intense research, the main bat-maintenance hypothesis has not been confirmed yet. The alternative hypotheses of a non-bat maintenance host or a maintenance community including, or not, several bat and other species, deserves more investigation. However, African forest ecosystems host a large biodiversity and abound in potential maintenance hosts. How does one puzzle out? Since recent studies have revealed that several bat species have been exposed to ebolaviruses, the common denominator to these hypotheses is that within the epidemiological cycle, some bats species must be exposed to the viruses and infected by these potential alternative hosts. Under this constraint, and given the peculiar ecology of bats (roosting behaviour, habitat utilisation, and flight mode), we review the hosts and transmission pathways that can lead to bat exposure and infection to ebolaviruses. In contrast to the capacity of bats to transmit ebolaviruses and other pathogens to many hosts, our results indicate that only a limited number of hosts and pathways can lead to the transmission of ebolaviruses to bats, and that the alternative maintenance host, if it exists, must be amongst them. A list of these pathways is provided, along with protocols to prioritise and investigate these alternative hypotheses. In conclusion, taking into account the ecology of bats and their known involvement in ebolaviruses ecology drastically reduces the list of potential alternative maintenance hosts for ebolaviruses. Understanding the natural history of ebolaviruses is a health priority, and investigating these alternative hypotheses could complete the current effort focused on the role of bats.
埃博拉病毒在非洲森林生态系统中的维持机制尚不清楚，但间接证据表明某些蝙蝠物种可能参与其中。尽管进行了深入的研究，但主要的蝙蝠维持假说尚未得到证实。蝙蝠维持宿主的替代假说或包括蝙蝠和其他几种物种的维持群落的替代假说，值得进一步研究。然而，非洲森林生态系统拥有丰富的生物多样性和潜在的维持宿主。如何解决这个问题呢？由于最近的研究表明，几种蝙蝠物种已经接触过埃博拉病毒，这些假说的共同点是，在流行病学循环中，某些蝙蝠物种必须接触到这些病毒，并被这些潜在的替代宿主感染。在这种限制下，考虑到蝙蝠的特殊生态（栖息行为、栖息地利用和飞行模式），我们回顾了可能导致蝙蝠接触和感染埃博拉病毒的宿主和传播途径。与蝙蝠传播埃博拉病毒和其他病原体给许多宿主的能力相比，我们的结果表明，只有少数宿主和途径可以导致埃博拉病毒传播给蝙蝠，而如果存在替代维持宿主，它也必须在其中。我们提供了这些途径的列表，并附有确定和调查这些替代假说的协议。总之，考虑到蝙蝠的生态学及其已知的在埃博拉病毒生态学中的参与，极大地减少了埃博拉病毒的潜在替代维持宿主的名单。了解埃博拉病毒的自然史是一项健康优先事项，而调查这些替代假说可以补充目前专注于蝙蝠作用的努力。
