Bat Flight and Zoonotic Viruses

• Published in: Emerging infectious diseases Vol. 20; no. 5; pp. 741 - 745
• Main Authors: O’Shea, Thomas J., Cryan, Paul M., Cunningham, Andrew A., Fooks, Anthony R., Hayman, David T.S., Luis, Angela D., Peel, Alison J., Plowright, Raina K., Wood, James L.N.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States U.S. National Center for Infectious Diseases 01.05.2014; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Subjects: Animals; Bats; Biological Evolution; Body Temperature; Causes of; Chiroptera; Chiroptera - physiology; Chiroptera - virology; Disease Reservoirs - virology; emerging zoonotic viruses; Fever; flight; Flight, Animal; Health aspects; Host-Pathogen Interactions; Humans; Virus diseases; Zoonoses; Zoonoses - transmission; Zoonoses - virology; bats; flight; mammals; fever; metabolic rate; body temperature; Chiroptera; emerging zoonotic viruses
• ISSN: 1080-6040; 1080-6059; 1080-6059
• DOI: 10.3201/eid2005.130539

Bats are sources of high viral diversity and high-profile zoonotic viruses worldwide. Although apparently not pathogenic in their reservoir hosts, some viruses from bats severely affect other mammals, including humans. Examples include severe acute respiratory syndrome coronaviruses, Ebola and Marburg viruses, and Nipah and Hendra viruses. Factors underlying high viral diversity in bats are the subject of speculation. We hypothesize that flight, a factor common to all bats but to no other mammals, provides an intensive selective force for coexistence with viral parasites through a daily cycle that elevates metabolism and body temperature analogous to the febrile response in other mammals. On an evolutionary scale, this host-virus interaction might have resulted in the large diversity of zoonotic viruses in bats, possibly through bat viruses adapting to be more tolerant of the fever response and less virulent to their natural hosts.