Bats provide important ecosystem services as pollinators, seed dispersers, and/or insect controllers, but they have also been found harboring different viruses with zoonotic potential. Virome studies in bats distributed in Asia, Africa, Europe, and N...
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is presumed to have originated from wildlife and shares homology with other bat coronaviruses. Determining the susceptibility of North American bat species to SARS-CoV-2 is of utmost import...
Bats are natural reservoirs of coronaviruses and other viruses with zoonotic potential. Florida has indigenous non-migratory populations of Brazilian free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) that mostly roost in colonies in artificial structures. Unl...
Histoplasma capsulatum is a dimorphic fungus associated with respiratory and systemic infections in mammalian hosts that have inhaled infective mycelial propagules. A phylogenetic reconstruction of this pathogen, using partial sequences of arf, H-ant...
Migratory colonies of up to thousands or millions of Brazilian free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) are present in temperate areas of America. The monitoring of these massive colonies is crucial to know their conservation status and to evaluate t...
Rabies is a zoonotic disease caused by the rabies virus (RABV) that causes fatal encephalitis in mammals. Bats can transmit the disease to urban canines and felines, which rarely infect humans, establishing a secondary link. The last case of human ra...
Florida’s bat virome remains poorly characterized despite the state’s high bat species diversity and conservation importance. We characterized viral metagenomes from rectal tissues, anal swabs, and feces of Myotis austroriparius and Tadar...
Bats are natural reservoirs of a variety of zoonotic viruses, many of which cause severe human diseases. Characterizing viruses of bats inhabiting different geographical regions is important for understanding their viral diversity and for detecting v...
We assembled and annotated the complete mitochondrial genomes of Lycalopex vetulus (hoary fox), Cerdocyon thous (bush dog), Tayassu pecari (white-lipped peccary), and Tadarida brasiliensis (Brazilian free-tailed bat). The mitogenomes exhibited typica...
Habitat fragmentation due to anthropogenic pressures threats functional connectivity across landscapes for flying mammals. Tadarida brasiliensis depends on nocturnal movement corridors linking refuge and foraging areas, yet these pathways are increas...
Insectivorous bats play a crucial role in agroecosystems by providing invaluable pest control services. With the escalating impacts of climate change, a comprehensive understanding of the environmental factors influencing bat activity becomes imperat...
Alphaviruses (Togaviridae) are arthropod-borne viruses responsible for several emerging diseases, maintained in nature through transmission between hematophagous arthropod vectors and susceptible vertebrate hosts. Although bats harbor many species of...
Agriculture is a leading cause of biodiversity loss, making the transition to sustainable agroecological practices crucial. Insectivorous bats play a crucial role as biological controllers in regard to agricultural crops, serving as important insect...
Bats are crucial reservoirs for coronaviruses, yet surveillance in the southeastern United States remains limited. Using carcasses submitted from public health surveillance for rabies, we screened 170 non-rabid bat carcasses from Alabama using a tier...
Urbanization is one of the leading causes of habitat loss, which has increased significantly in tropical regions in recent years, leading to the loss of species, their ecological functions, and evolutionary history. To determine the effect of urbaniz...
Research Highlights: Seasonal variation in environmental conditions coinciding with reproductive and energetic demands might result in seasonal differences in species-specific habitat use. We studied a winter assemblage of insectivorous bats and foun...