Robust evidence for bats as reservoir hosts is lacking in most African virus studies: a review and call to optimize sampling and conserve bats

Abstract

Africa experiences frequent emerging disease outbreaks among humans, with bats often proposed as zoonotic pathogen hosts. We comprehensively reviewed virus–bat findings from papers published between 1978 and 2020 to evaluate the evidence that African bats are reservoir and/or bridging hosts for viruses that cause human disease. We present data from 162 papers (of 1322) with original findings on (1) numbers and species of bats sampled across bat families and the continent, (2) how bats were selected for study inclusion, (3) if bats were terminally sampled, (4) what types of ecological data, if any, were recorded and (5) which viruses were detected and with what methodology. We propose a scheme for evaluating presumed virus–host relationships by evidence type and quality, using the contrasting available evidence for Orthoebolavirus versus Orthomarburgvirus as an example. We review the wording in abstracts and discussions of all 162 papers, identifying key framing terms, how these refer to findings, and how they might contribute to people's beliefs about bats. We discuss the impact of scientific research communication on public perception and emphasize the need for strategies that minimize human–bat conflict and support bat conservation. Finally, we make recommendations for best practices that will improve virological study metadata.

Surveying Bat-Hosted Adenoviruses and Herpesviruses: A Comprehensive Analysis

“…Nevertheless, it is important to be careful when addressing this scientific interest in such a way as to avoid undesirable misconceptions and negative effects on the public perception of bats. This negative impact has increased dramatically and in an unjustified manner after the recent pandemic and has provoked worrisome direct consequences on the conservation of bats despite their fundamental ecosystem services [135,136].…”

Advances in understanding bat infection dynamics across biological scales

“…Historically, the bat research community has been siloed between the infectious disease and ecology/conservation disciplines, with few influential researchers bridging interdisciplinary science between these disciplines [ 6 , 146 ]. The emergence of WNS in the US represented one instance in which researchers came together to combat an infectious disease threatening the viability and conservation of bat populations [ 146 ].…”

“…In the past two decades, following the emergence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) coronavirus (CoV) in 2003 and SARS-CoV-2 in 2019, there has been a dramatic increase in research on bat-associated microbes, including viruses, bacteria, haemosporidians and fungi [2][3][4][5]. These microbes may or may not cause disease in bats, and thus we broadly use the term 'microbes' rather than 'pathogens' throughout this paper to acknowledge that detecting microorganisms in bats is distinct from the process of determining pathogenicity [6]. Research has moved far beyond simple microbe detection in bat hosts and includes cutting-edge investigations into infection dynamics at individual, population and community scales, and One Health approaches to integrate bat ecology and health [7][8][9][10][11].…”