scholarly journals Bat-associated diseases

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 3
Author(s):  
Glenn A Marsh

Emerging infectious diseases pose a significant threat to human and animal health. Increasingly, emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases are of zoonotic origin and are derived from wildlife. Bats have been identified as an important reservoir of zoonotic viruses belonging to a range of different virus families including SARSCoronavirus, Rabies virus, Hendra virus, Nipah virus, Marburg virus and Ebola virus.

2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1798) ◽  
pp. 20142124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raina K. Plowright ◽  
Peggy Eby ◽  
Peter J. Hudson ◽  
Ina L. Smith ◽  
David Westcott ◽  
...  

Viruses that originate in bats may be the most notorious emerging zoonoses that spill over from wildlife into domestic animals and humans. Understanding how these infections filter through ecological systems to cause disease in humans is of profound importance to public health. Transmission of viruses from bats to humans requires a hierarchy of enabling conditions that connect the distribution of reservoir hosts, viral infection within these hosts, and exposure and susceptibility of recipient hosts. For many emerging bat viruses, spillover also requires viral shedding from bats, and survival of the virus in the environment. Focusing on Hendra virus, but also addressing Nipah virus, Ebola virus, Marburg virus and coronaviruses, we delineate this cross-species spillover dynamic from the within-host processes that drive virus excretion to land-use changes that increase interaction among species. We describe how land-use changes may affect co-occurrence and contact between bats and recipient hosts. Two hypotheses may explain temporal and spatial pulses of virus shedding in bat populations: episodic shedding from persistently infected bats or transient epidemics that occur as virus is transmitted among bat populations. Management of livestock also may affect the probability of exposure and disease. Interventions to decrease the probability of virus spillover can be implemented at multiple levels from targeting the reservoir host to managing recipient host exposure and susceptibility.


2017 ◽  
Vol 372 (1721) ◽  
pp. 20160294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda M. Rojek ◽  
Peter W. Horby

Although, after an epidemic of over 28 000 cases, there are still no licensed treatments for Ebola virus disease (EVD), significant progress was made during the West Africa outbreak. The pace of pre-clinical development was exceptional and a number of therapeutic clinical trials were conducted in the face of considerable challenges. Given the on-going risk of emerging infectious disease outbreaks in an era of unprecedented population density, international travel and human impact on the environment it is pertinent to focus on improving the research and development landscape for treatments of emerging and epidemic-prone infections. This is especially the case since there are no licensed therapeutics for some of the diseases considered by the World Health Organization as most likely to cause severe outbreaks—including Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, Marburg virus, Crimean Congo haemorrhagic fever and Nipah virus. EVD, therefore, provides a timely exemplar to discuss the barriers, enablers and incentives needed to find effective treatments in advance of health emergencies caused by emerging infectious diseases. This article is part of the themed issue ‘The 2013–2016 West African Ebola epidemic: data, decision-making and disease control’.


2012 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 137
Author(s):  
John MacKenzie ◽  
Martyn Jeggo

Global health security has become a major concern, particularly the threats to human and animal health from the emergence and re-emergence of epidemic-prone infectious diseases, as well as the significant and growing impact of these outbreaks on national and international economies. It has long been known that many of these diseases can cross the species barrier between humans, wildlife and domestic animals, and indeed over 70% of novel emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic, that is, have their origins in animal reservoirs. There have been many recent examples of this trend, the most dramatic being recently the SARS epidemic ? the first major threat to global health from a novel zoonotic disease in the new Millennium. Other recent examples include the H1N1 influenza virus pandemic; the spread of Nipah virus into Bangladesh and India; and perhaps the most important of all, the ongoing concerns of a highly virulent influenza pandemic due to avian influenza virus (H5N1).


Author(s):  
Venkata Niharika Daka ◽  
Lakshmi Sravanthi Bandi ◽  
Sushma Alla ◽  
Venkata Spandana Cheedella ◽  
Sadasiva Rao Galaba

Remdesivir is an investigational broad-spectrum small-molecule antiviral drug that has confirmed interest in the direction of RNA viruses in numerous families, which encompass Coronaviridae (alongside aspect SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and lines of bat coronaviruses able to infecting human respiratory epithelial cells), Paramyxoviridae (alongside aspect Nipah virus, respiratory syncytial virus, and Hendra virus), and Filoviridae (alongside aspect Ebola virus). Originally superior to cope with Ebola virus infection , remdesivir is a prodrug of the determine adenosine analog, each of which can be metabolized into an energetic nucleoside triphosphate (NTP) via the host. The determine nucleoside, GS-441524, has displayed antiviral interest within the direction of SARS-CoV, Marburg virus , and pussycat infectious peritonitis virus, amongst others. A fashion of research have tested the effects of these pills on coronaviruses (CoVs) each in vitro and in vivo the use of mouse and non-human primate animal models.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (19) ◽  
pp. 10763
Author(s):  
Mohamed Elbadawy ◽  
Yuki Kato ◽  
Nagisa Saito ◽  
Kimika Hayashi ◽  
Amira Abugomaa ◽  
...  

Various pathogens, such as Ebola virus, Marburg virus, Nipah virus, Hendra virus, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and SARS-CoV-2, are threatening human health worldwide. The natural hosts of these pathogens are thought to be bats. The rousette bat, a megabat, is thought to be a natural reservoir of filoviruses, including Ebola and Marburg viruses. Additionally, the rousette bat showed a transient infection in the experimental inoculation of SARS-CoV-2. In the current study, we established and characterized intestinal organoids from Leschenault’s rousette, Rousettus leschenaultii. The established organoids successfully recapitulated the characteristics of intestinal epithelial structure and morphology, and the appropriate supplements necessary for long-term stable culture were identified. The organoid showed susceptibility to Pteropine orthoreovirus (PRV) but not to SARS-CoV-2 in experimental inoculation. This is the first report of the establishment of an expandable organoid culture system of the rousette bat intestinal organoid and its sensitivity to bat-associated viruses, PRV and SARS-CoV-2. This organoid is a useful tool for the elucidation of tolerance mechanisms of the emerging rousette bat-associated viruses such as Ebola and Marburg virus.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 599
Author(s):  
Roberto J. Hermida Lorenzo ◽  
Dániel Cadar ◽  
Fara Raymond Koundouno ◽  
Javier Juste ◽  
Alexandra Bialonski ◽  
...  

To prevent the emergence of zoonotic infectious diseases and reduce their epidemic potential, we need to understand their origins in nature. Bats in the order Chiroptera are widely distributed worldwide and are natural reservoirs of prominent zoonotic viruses, including Nipah virus, Marburg virus, and possibly SARS-CoV-2. In this study, we applied unbiased metagenomic and metatranscriptomic approaches to decipher the virosphere of frugivorous and insectivorous bat species captured in Guéckédou, Guinea, the epicenter of the West African Ebola virus disease epidemic in 2013–2016. Our study provides a snapshot of the viral diversity present in these bat species, with several novel viruses reported for the first time in bats, as well as some bat viruses closely related to known human or animal pathogens. In addition, analysis of Mops condylurus genomic DNA samples revealed the presence of an Ebola virus nucleoprotein (NP)-derived pseudogene inserted in its genome. These findings provide insight into the evolutionary traits of several virus families in bats and add evidence that nonretroviral integrated RNA viruses (NIRVs) derived from filoviruses may be common in bat genomes.


2018 ◽  
Vol 80 (7) ◽  
pp. 493-500
Author(s):  
Derek Dube ◽  
Tracie M. Addy ◽  
Maria R. Teixeira ◽  
Linda M. Iadarola

Throughout global history, various infectious diseases have emerged as particularly relevant within an era. Some examples include the Bubonic plague of the fourteenth century, the Spanish Influenza pandemic of 1918, the HIV epidemic of the 1980s, and the Zika virus outbreak in 2015–16. These instances of emerging infectious disease represent ideal opportunities for timely, relevant instruction in natural and health science courses through case studies. Such instructional approaches can promote student engagement in the material and encourage application and higher-order thinking. We describe here how the case study approach was utilized to teach students about emerging infectious diseases using the 2014–16 Ebola virus outbreak as the subject of instruction. Results suggest that students completing the case study not only had positive perceptions of the mode of instruction, but also realized learning gains and misconception resolution. These outcomes support the efficacy of case pedagogy as a useful teaching tool in emerging infectious diseases, and augment the paucity of literature examining Ebola virus knowledge and misconceptions among undergraduate students within United States institutions.


2020 ◽  
pp. 870-877
Author(s):  
Jan H. ter Meulen

Filoviruses are large RNA viruses, of which Ebola virus and Marburg virus cause the most severe forms of viral haemorrhagic fever and have been best-studied because of fear of their misuse as bioterrorism agents. These are zoonotic viruses with reservoirs, most likely fruit-eating bats, in the rainforests of tropical Africa, where they cause sporadic infections and outbreaks among great apes and humans. The primary mode of transmission of Ebola virus to humans often involves contact of hunters with dead animals that serve as amplifying hosts, especially gorillas, chimpanzees, and forest antelopes, whose meat is consumed as ‘bush meat’. Contact with bats has been implicated for both Marburg and Ebola virus. However, the viruses are highly infectious and are transmitted from the index case and subsequently from person to person by all body fluids, including sweat, respiratory droplets, and semen. The viruses can persist in convalescent patients for many months.


2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 33
Author(s):  
David A Wilkinson ◽  
David TS Hayman

The emergence of infectious diseases caused by bat-associated viruses has had a devastating and wide-reaching effect on human populations. These viruses include lyssaviruses such as rabies virus, the filoviruses, Ebola (EBOV) and Marburg virus, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) coronavirus, and the paramyxoviruses, Hendra virus (HeV) and Nipah virus (NiV)1. As a result bats have been the focus of substantial research (Fig. 1) and certain cellular and physiological traits of bats are hypothesised to lead to ‘special’ bat-virus associations2,3 (but see Han et al.4). The anthropogenic changes in the world we live will influence human health5, including through their impact on bat ecology and the viruses within bat populations. Australian people and livestock have been infected by novel bat viruses, such as HeV, Menangle viruses (MenV) and Australian bat lyssavirus (ABLV), and are at the forefront of both epidemiological and virological research efforts into cross-species transmission events (spillover): here we put some of those efforts and the potential impacts of anthropogenic changes on bat-virus ecology under the microscope.


Author(s):  
Stephen B. Kennedy ◽  
John B. Dogba ◽  
Christine L. Wasunna ◽  
Philip Sahr ◽  
Candace B. Eastman ◽  
...  

Prior to the Ebola virus disease outbreak in Liberia, the laboratory system was duplicativefragmented and minimally coordinated. The National Reference Laboratory was conceptualisedto address the existing challenges by promoting the implementation of effective and sustainablelaboratory services in Liberia. However, in a resource-limited environment such as Liberiaprogress regarding the rebuilding of the health system can be relatively slow, while efforts tosustain the transient gains remain a key challenge for the Ministry of Health. In this paper, wedescribe the pre-Ebola virus disease laboratory system in Liberia and its prevailing efforts toaddress future emerging infectious diseases, as well as current Infectious diseases, all of whichare exacerbated by poverty. We conclude that laboratory and diagnostic services in Liberiahave encountered numerous challenges regarding its efforts to strengthen the healthcaredelivery system. These challenges include limited trained human resource capacity, inadequateinfrastructure, and a lack of coordination. As with most countries in sub-Saharan Africa, whencomparing urban and rural settings, diagnostic and clinical services are generally skewedtoward urban health facilities and private, faith-based health facilities. We recommend thatstructured policy be directed at these challenges for national institutions to develop guidelinesto improve, strengthen and sustain diagnostic and curative laboratory services to effectivelyaddress current infectious diseases and prepare for future emerging and re-emerging infectiousdiseases.


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