Coronavirus Infection and Diversity in Bats in the Australasian Region

Abstract

Following the SARS outbreak, extensive surveillance was undertaken globally to detect and identify coronavirus diversity in bats. This study sought to identify the diversity and prevalence of coronaviruses in bats in the Australasian region. We identified four different genotypes of coronavirus, three of which (an alphacoronavirus and two betacoronaviruses) are potentially new species, having less than 90% nucleotide sequence identity with the most closely related described viruses. We did not detect any SARS-like betacoronaviruses, despite targeting rhinolophid bats, the putative natural host taxa. Our findings support the virus-host co-evolution hypothesis, with the detection of Miniopterus bat coronavirus HKU8 (previously reported in Miniopterus species in China, Hong Kong and Bulgaria) in Australian Miniopterus species. Similarly, we detected a novel betacoronavirus genotype from Pteropus alecto which is most closely related to Bat coronavirus HKU9 identified in other pteropodid bats in China, Kenya and the Philippines. We also detected possible cross-species transmission of bat coronaviruses, and the apparent enteric tropism of these viruses. Thus, our findings are consistent with a scenario wherein the current diversity and host specificity of coronaviruses reflects co-evolution with the occasional host shift.

Persistent or long-term coronavirus infection in Australian bats

“…Our identification that individual Australian Myotis macropus were infected with a novel putative Alphacoronavirus over periods of epidemic models using the Myotis macropus mark-recapture data 17,19 , and found that both persistently and transiently infected bats were required for maintenance of coronaviruses.…”

“…Subsequent to these ecological studies, we identified four putative novel coronaviruses (two Alpha-and two Betacoronaviruses) in seven species of Australian bats 17,18 . One of these species (Myotis macropus, Figure 1), had individuals infected with a putative novel Alphacoronavirus (detection of coronavirus RNA in faeces from bats enrolled in a mark-recapture study) over periods of up to 11 weeks, supporting the hypothesis for persistent or long-term infection as a method of maintaining coronaviruses in bats 17,19 .…”

Circulation of Alphacoronavirus, Betacoronavirus and Paramyxovirus in Hipposideros bat species in Zimbabwe

“…Additionally, SARS-CoVr have been characterised from these three bat families (Pfefferle et al, 2009;Smith et al, 2016;Wu et al, 2016).…”

Phenotypic and functional characterization of the major lymphocyte populations in the fruit-eating bat Pteropus alecto

“…Due to the importance of horse races in Australia, research on P. alecto has received a lot of attention and strong government (Australia) support. In addition, P. alecto bats have been found to harbor other virus species potentially pathogenic to humans, including Lyssavirus, closely related to rabies virus13, previously unknown paramyxoviruses14 as well as a novel betacoronavirus15. Serological evidence of infection with Menangle virus (MenV) in Pteropus spp.…”