Emerg Infect Dis. 2023 Nov;29(11):2238-2245. doi: 10.3201/eid2911.230362.
Marburg virus disease, caused by Marburg and Ravn orthomarburgviruses, emerges sporadically in sub-Saharan Africa and is often fatal in humans. The natural reservoir is the Egyptian rousette bat (ERB), which sheds virus in saliva, urine, and feces. Frugivorous ERBs discard test-bitten and partially eaten fruit, potentially leaving infectious virus behind that could be consumed by other susceptible animals or humans. Historically, 8 of 17 known Marburg virus disease outbreaks have been linked to human encroachment on ERB habitats, but no linkage exists for the other 9 outbreaks, raising the question of how bats and humans might intersect, leading to virus spillover. We used micro‒global positioning systems to identify nightly ERB foraging locations. ERBs from a known Marburg virus‒infected population traveled long distances to feed in cultivated fruit trees near homes. Our results show that ERB foraging behavior represents a Marburg virus spillover risk to humans and plausibly explains the origins of some past outbreaks.
马尔堡病毒病由马尔堡和 Ravn 正马尔堡病毒引起,零星出现在撒哈拉以南非洲地区,对人类往往是致命的。埃及果蝠(ERB)是其自然宿主,其唾液、尿液和粪便中都带有病毒。以水果为食的 ERB 会丢弃已咬过和部分食用的水果,这可能会将传染性病毒留在后面,其他易感动物或人类可能会食用这些病毒。从历史上看,已知的 17 次马尔堡病毒病暴发中有 8 次与人类侵犯 ERB 栖息地有关,但其他 9 次暴发没有联系,这就提出了蝙蝠和人类如何交叉从而导致病毒溢出的问题。我们使用微型全球定位系统来确定夜间 ERB 的觅食地点。来自已知感染马尔堡病毒的种群的 ERB 长途跋涉到附近房屋的人工种植果树上觅食。我们的研究结果表明,ERB 的觅食行为对人类构成了马尔堡病毒溢出的风险,并合理地解释了过去一些暴发的起源。