Shahabi Saeed, Azizi Kourosh, Bakhshi Yaser, Pirbonyeh Neda, Moattari Afagh, Sazmand Alireza, Omidian Mostafa, Sarkari Bahador
Department of Biology and Control of Disease Vectors, School of Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.
Transbound Emerg Dis. 2024 Feb 1;2024:5313346. doi: 10.1155/2024/5313346. eCollection 2024.
The COVID-19 was first reported in 2019 to cause pneumonia in people of Wuhan, Hubei province, China, is now associated with high mortality worldwide. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that SARS-CoV-2 (2019-nCoV) is closely (88%-89% similarity) related to the coronavirus circulating in (horseshoe bats). More than 50 bat species belonging to eight families have been reported from Iran of which five species belong to the Rhinolophidae family. So far, no study has been done on COVID-19 infection in Iranian bats.
The current study was performed, for the first time, to investigate the infection of Iranian bats with SARS-CoV-2.
This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2021 using 183 bat samples collected from three caves in the south (Fars province) and two caves in the northwest (Kermanshah and Kurdistan provinces) of Iran. Bats' digestive and respiratory system samples were collected from each bat of different species. The samples were evaluated by real-time PCR and by targeting a 221 bp fragment of the envelop (E) genes of SARS-CoV-2.
COVID-19 was detected in alimentary specimens of two of the Mediterranean horseshoe () bats.
Although, based on the findings of the molecular evaluation, the infection of bats with COVID-19 was determined in this study, further studies are needed on a larger number of bats, particularly horseshoe bats, to confirm the potential infection of Iranian bats with COVID-19.
2019年首次报道新型冠状病毒肺炎（COVID-19）在中国湖北省武汉市引发肺炎，目前在全球范围内导致高死亡率。系统发育分析显示，严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2，即2019新型冠状病毒）与在菊头蝠中传播的冠状病毒密切相关（相似度为88%-89%）。伊朗已报道有8个科的50多种蝙蝠，其中5种属于菊头蝠科。到目前为止，尚未对伊朗蝙蝠的COVID-19感染情况进行研究。
本研究首次对伊朗蝙蝠感染SARS-CoV-2的情况进行调查。
这项横断面研究于2021年开展，使用了从伊朗南部（法尔斯省）的3个洞穴和西北部（克尔曼沙阿省和库尔德斯坦省）的2个洞穴收集的183份蝙蝠样本。从不同种类的每只蝙蝠身上采集其消化系统和呼吸系统样本。通过实时聚合酶链反应（PCR）并针对SARS-CoV-2包膜（E）基因的221 bp片段对样本进行评估。
在地中海菊头蝠的两份消化道标本中检测到了COVID-19。
尽管基于分子评估结果，本研究确定了蝙蝠感染了COVID-19，但仍需要对更多数量的蝙蝠，特别是菊头蝠，进行进一步研究，以确认伊朗蝙蝠感染COVID-19的可能性。
