A global-scale dataset of bat viral detection suggests that pregnancy reduces viral shedding.

ABSTRACT: Understanding viral infection dynamics in wildlife hosts can help forecast zoonotic pathogen spillover and human disease risk. Bats are particularly important reservoirs of zoonotic viruses, including some of major public health concern such as Nipah virus, Hendra virus, and SARS-related coronaviruses. Previous work has suggested that metapopulation dynamics, seasonal reproductive patterns, and other bat life history characteristics might explain temporal variation in spillover of bat-associated viruses into people. Here, we analyze viral dynamics in free-ranging bat hosts, leveraging a multi-year, global-scale viral detection dataset that spans eight viral families and 96 bat species from 14 countries. We fit hierarchical Bayesian models that explicitly control for important sources of va

SUBMITTER: Eskew EA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10925100 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature