Coronavirus shedding by straw-colored fruit bats in Africa with potential for zoonotic pathogen transmission Coronavirus FruitBat Pathogen Zoonosis Animalsociality Africa Virustesting Ghana Tanzania PLOSONE
E. helvum is a pteropodid distributed widely in tropical Africa that can migrate thousands of kilometers; they roost in trees to form dynamic colonies, hosting millions. The bat is considered a unique disperser of seeds due to its migration. As such, the conservation of E. helvum is crucial for tropical Africa. This species has adapted to habitat loss by roosting in trees across urban areas. This potentially exposes humans to the bat’s excretions and the pathogenic species shed therein.
About the study In the present study, researchers investigated the CoV shedding patterns in E. helvum roosts to propose realistic strategies supporting a safer, ethical co-existence of this species with humans. They studied two urban colonies of this bat species, located in Accra, Ghana, and Morogoro, Tanzania. The colony in Accra was studied between March 2017 and February 2018, while the Morogoro roost was studied from August 2017 to July 2018.
In Morogoro, the team assigned December 15 as the lactation period start, February 15 and 16 as the last date of birth pulse, and the beginning of the weaning period. The rest-of-the-year period followed immediately after these time points. The association between CoV shedding and the reproductive cycle was assessed using two logistic models .
The proportion of positive samples during lactation and weaning periods was 0 and 0.018 in Accra, and 0.088 and 0.153 in Morogoro, respectively. BLAST analyses revealed that all CoVs identified in the current study exhibited a pairwise sequence identified with Eidolon bat CoV from the Beta-CoV genus.
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