Published 2022
| Version v1
Journal article
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A Novel Coronavirus and a Broad Range of Viruses in Kenyan Cave Bats
Description
(Uploaded by Plazi for the Bat Literature Project) Background and Methods: To investigate virus diversity in hot zones of probable pathogen spillover, 54 oral-fecal swabs were processed from five bat species collected from three cave systems in Kenya, using metagenome sequencing. Results: Viruses belonging to the Astroviridae, Circoviridae, Coronaviridae, Dicistroviridae, Herpesviridae and Retroviridae were detected, with unclassified viruses. Retroviral sequences were prevalent; 74.1% of all samples were positive, with distinct correlations between virus, site and host bat species. Detected retroviruses comprised Myotis myotis, Myotis ricketti, Myotis daubentonii and Galidia endogenous retroviruses, murine leukemia virus-related virus and Rhinolophus ferrumequinum retrovirus (RFRV). A near-complete genome of a local RFRV strain with identical genome organization and 2.8% nucleotide divergence from the prototype isolate was characterized. Bat coronavirus sequences were detected with a prevalence of 24.1%, where analyses on the ORF1ab region revealed a novel alphacoronavirus lineage. Astrovirus sequences were detected in 25.9%of all samples, with considerable diversity. In 9.2% of the samples, other viruses including Actinidia yellowing virus 2, bat betaherpesvirus, Bole tick virus 4, Cyclovirus and Rhopalosiphum padi virus were identified. Conclusions: Further monitoring of bats across Kenya is essential to facilitate early recognition of possibly emergent zoonotic viruses.
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Additional details
Identifiers
- URL
- hash://md5/8ba046587f59e9cd9179d0fe5051d733
- URN
- urn:lsid:zotero.org:groups:5435545:items:HZHEA5C4
- DOI
- 10.3390/v14122820
Biodiversity
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Mammalia
- Order
- Chiroptera