A Comparative Analysis of Viral Richness and Viral Sharing in Cave-Roosting Bats
1
EcoHealth Alliance, 460 West 34th Street, 17th Floor, New York, NY 10001, USA
2
Department of Biological Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409, USA
3
One Health Institute, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California Davis, Davis, California, CA 95616, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Diversity 2017, 9(3), 35; https://doi.org/10.3390/d9030035
Received: 15 July 2017
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Revised: 11 August 2017
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Accepted: 22 August 2017
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Published: 28 August 2017
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microbial Diversity in Caves)
Caves provide critical roosting habitats for bats globally, but are increasingly disturbed or destroyed by human activities such as tourism and extractive industries. In addition to degrading the habitats of cave-roosting bats, such activities often promote contact between humans and bats, which may have potential impacts on human health. Cave-roosting bats are hosts to diverse viruses, some of which emerged in humans with severe consequences (e.g., severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus and Marburg virus). Characterizing patterns of viral richness and sharing among bat species are therefore important first steps for understanding bat-virus dynamics and mitigating future bat-human spillover. Here we compile a database of bat-virus associations and bat species ecological traits, and investigate the importance of roosting behavior as a determinant of viral richness and viral sharing among bat species. We show that cave-roosting species do not host greater viral richness, when accounting for publication bias, diet, body mass, and geographic range size. Our global analyses, however, show that cave-roosting bats do exhibit a greater likelihood of viral sharing, especially those documented in the literature as co-roosting in the same cave. We highlight the importance of caves as critical foci for bat conservation, as well as ideal sites for longitudinal surveillance of bat-virus dynamics.
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Keywords:
Chiroptera; caves; roosting behavior; viruses; ecological traits; virus-host associations; zoonosis
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MDPI and ACS Style
Willoughby, A.R.; Phelps, K.L.; PREDICT Consortium; Olival, K.J. A Comparative Analysis of Viral Richness and Viral Sharing in Cave-Roosting Bats. Diversity 2017, 9, 35. https://doi.org/10.3390/d9030035
AMA Style
Willoughby AR, Phelps KL, PREDICT Consortium, Olival KJ. A Comparative Analysis of Viral Richness and Viral Sharing in Cave-Roosting Bats. Diversity. 2017; 9(3):35. https://doi.org/10.3390/d9030035
Chicago/Turabian StyleWilloughby, Anna R., Kendra L. Phelps, PREDICT Consortium, and Kevin J. Olival. 2017. "A Comparative Analysis of Viral Richness and Viral Sharing in Cave-Roosting Bats" Diversity 9, no. 3: 35. https://doi.org/10.3390/d9030035
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