Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Group, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Department of Viroscience, Erasmus University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
PLoS One. 2023 Nov 29;18(11):e0293649. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0293649. eCollection 2023.
Changes in land use can modify habitat and roosting behaviour of bats, and therefore the transmission dynamics of viruses. Within bat roosts the density and contact rate among individuals increase and may facilitate the transmission of bat coronaviruses (CoVs). Landscape components supporting larger bat populations may thus lead to higher CoVs prevalence, as the number of roosts and/or roost size are likely to be higher. Hence, relationships between landscape composition and the presence of CoVs are expected to exist. To increase our understanding of the spread and shedding of coronaviruses in bat populations we studied the relationships between landscape composition and CoVs prevalence in the species Pipistrellus pipistrellus and Pipistrellus nathusii. Faecal samples were collected across The Netherlands, and were screened to detect the presence of CoV RNA. Coordinates were recorded for all faecal samples, so that landscape attributes could be quantified. Using a backward selection procedure on the basis of AIC, the landscape variables that best explained the presence of CoVs were selected in the final model. Results suggested that relationships between landscape composition and CoVs were likely associated with optimal foraging opportunities in both species, e.g. nearby water in P. nathusii or in areas with more grassland situated far away from forests for P. pipistrellus. Surprisingly, we found no positive association between built-up cover (where roosts are frequently found) and the presence of bat-CoVs for both species. We also show that samples collected from large bat roosts, such as maternity colonies, substantially increased the probability of finding CoVs in P. pipistrellus. Interestingly, while maternity colonies of P. nathusii are rarely present in The Netherlands, CoVs prevalence was similar in both species, suggesting that other mechanisms besides roost size, participate in the transmission of bat-CoVs. We encourage further studies to quantify bat roosts and colony networks over the different landscape compositions to better understand the ecological mechanisms involved in the transmission of bat-CoVs.
土地利用的变化会改变蝙蝠的栖息地和栖息行为，从而改变病毒的传播动态。在蝙蝠栖息地中，个体之间的密度和接触率增加，这可能会促进蝙蝠冠状病毒（CoV）的传播。支持更大蝙蝠种群的景观组成部分可能会导致更高的 CoV 流行率，因为栖息场所的数量和/或大小可能更高。因此，预计景观组成与 CoV 存在之间存在关系。为了增加我们对蝙蝠种群中冠状病毒传播和释放的理解，我们研究了物种 Pipistrellus pipistrellus 和 Pipistrellus nathusii 中景观组成与 CoV 流行率之间的关系。在荷兰各地收集粪便样本，并对其进行筛查以检测 CoV RNA 的存在。为所有粪便样本记录坐标，以便量化景观属性。基于 AIC，使用向后选择程序从最终模型中选择最佳解释 CoV 存在的景观变量。结果表明，景观组成与 CoV 之间的关系可能与两种物种的最佳觅食机会有关，例如 P. nathusii 附近的水或远离森林的草地更多的地区，P. pipistrellus 就会在那里觅食。令人惊讶的是，我们没有发现两种物种的建筑物覆盖（经常发现栖息地的地方）与蝙蝠 CoV 存在之间存在正相关关系。我们还表明，在 P. pipistrellus 中，从大型蝙蝠栖息地（如育雏地）收集的样本大大增加了发现 CoV 的可能性。有趣的是，虽然 P. nathusii 的育雏地在荷兰很少见，但两种物种的 CoV 流行率相似，这表明除了栖息地大小之外，还有其他机制参与了蝙蝠 CoV 的传播。我们鼓励进一步的研究来量化不同景观组成中的蝙蝠栖息地和群体网络，以更好地理解蝙蝠 CoV 传播涉及的生态机制。
