Ecological and evolutionary drivers of haemoplasma infection and bacterial genotype sharing in a Neotropical bat community.

ABSTRACT: Most emerging pathogens can infect multiple species, underlining the importance of understanding the ecological and evolutionary factors that allow some hosts to harbour greater infection prevalence and share pathogens with other species. However, our understanding of pathogen jumps is based primarily around viruses, despite bacteria accounting for the greatest proportion of zoonoses. Because bacterial pathogens in bats (order Chiroptera) can have conservation and human health consequences, studies that examine the ecological and evolutionary drivers of bacterial prevalence and barriers to pathogen sharing are crucially needed. Here were studied haemotropic Mycoplasma spp. (i.e., haemoplasmas) across a species-rich bat community in Belize over two years. Across 469 bats spanning 33 species

SUBMITTER: Becker DJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8299350 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature