Interface between Bats and Pigs in Heavy Pig Production

Abstract

Bats are often claimed to be a major source for future viral epidemics, as they are associated with several viruses with zoonotic potential. Here we describe the presence and biodiversity of bats associated with intensive pig farms devoted to the production of heavy pigs in northern Italy. Since chiropters or signs of their presence were not found within animal shelters in our study area, we suggest that fecal viruses with high environmental resistance have the highest likelihood for spillover through indirect transmission. In turn, we investigated the circulation of mammalian orthoreoviruses (MRVs), coronaviruses (CoVs) and astroviruses (AstVs) in pigs and bats sharing the same environment. Results of our preliminary study did not show any bat virus in pigs suggesting that spillover from these animals is rare. However, several AstVs, CoVs and MRVs circulated undetected in pigs. Among those, one MRV was a reassortant strain carrying viral genes likely acquired from bats. On the other hand, we found a swine AstV and a MRV strain carrying swine genes in bat guano, indicating that viral exchange at the bat–pig interface might occur more frequently from pigs to bats rather than the other way around. Considering the indoor farming system as the most common system in the European Union (EU), preventive measures should focus on biosecurity rather than displacement of bats, which are protected throughout the EU and provide critical ecosystem services for rural settings.

Update on Potentially Zoonotic Viruses of European Bats

“…Since 2014 portable sequencing via Oxford nanopore is on the rise [ 20 , 21 ]. Metagenomics and viromics have become standard applications in the virological research communities, leading to increased virus discovery results in European bats [ 15 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 ]. However, isolation of viruses is still the gold standard in virology for subsequent functional characterization and it will be very hard to replace this method.…”

“…In a second case a child with primary immunodeficiency was reported to be persistently infected with an MRV with very close relationship to the mentioned bat MRVs [ 206 ]. Further studies were conducted, elucidating the prevalence of potential zoonotic MRV strains in Slovenian and Italian bats [ 33 , 84 , 207 ]. The retrospective survey of Slovenian bat samples from 2008 to 2010 and in 2012 finally confirmed the occurrence of strain SI-MRV0 in the Slovenian bat populations and thus the zoonotic potential of bat-borne MRVs [ 84 , 205 ].…”

Spillover of West Caucasian Bat Lyssavirus (WCBV) in a Domestic Cat and Westward Expansion in the Palearctic Region

“…To describe the presence and habits of both bats and cats in this site that could somehow have favoured the spillover, we positioned two automatic fixed bat detectors (D500X, Petterson Elettronik AB, Uppsala, Sweden) on the two entrances of the tunnel and a camera trap in the index side only, where the river is dry during most of the year. Recordings were analyzed with BatSound 4.12 (Pettersson Elektronik AB, Uppsala, Sweden) and Raven Pro 1.5 (Cornell lab of ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA) as described elsewhere [ 34 ]. Briefly, all the ultrasounds referred to bats were first analysed to determine the bat species [ 35 ] and then classified in echolocations calls, feeding buzzes and social calls [ 36 ].…”

Una sola salud: una perspectiva veterinaria

“…En los planes de estudio en los que se tiene en cuenta ese enfoque de Una Sola Salud, los estudiantes de medicina veterinaria son instruidos acerca de los mecanismos de transmisión de enfermedades entre animales y humanos, así como la influencia de los factores ambientales en la salud de ambos, para que consideren el impacto de la salud animal en la salud humana y viceversa, reconociendo la importancia de un enfoque integral (Leopardi et al, 2021;Nguyen et al, 2020).…”