Learning more about the world’s only flying mammal – the bat – will help protect humans and animals against a range of deadly diseases, according to leading CSIRO virologist, Dr Bryan Eaton.
Speaking at the Australian Virology Group Meeting held at Phillip Island, Victoria, on Friday 9 December, Dr Eaton - a researcher at CSIRO Livestock Industries’ Australian Animal Health Laboratory in Geelong - said bats can harbour many viruses.
“Bats have been implicated as the natural host of a growing list of viruses including Hendra, Nipah, Ebola and the coronavirus responsible for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS),” Dr Eaton said
“More than 40 other viruses have been isolated from bats including rabies, yellow fever, St Louis encephalitis, Japanese encephalitis and West Nile virus.”
Bats can tolerate infection with many viruses, rarely showing clinical signs. They have an ability to coexist with a range of viruses – even those which can be fatal in humans and other animals.
“Bats are the natural host of viruses like Hendra which killed two people in Queensland in 1994/95 and SARS which emerged in 2002/3, claiming 774 lives.
“More research into bat ecology and the bat immune system is needed if we are to prevent and control outbreaks of disease,” Dr Eaton said.
“There are more bats in the world than any other mammal, in fact one in every five mammal species is a bat. ”
He suggested a good starting point for Hendra and Nipah viruses would be to investigate the role and function of the ephrin B2 molecule in bats.
Earlier this year, an international team, including Dr Eaton, identified that this molecule was the receptor - the gate or doorway - which allows Hendra virus and Nipah virus to get into human cells, start replicating and cause disease.
“Ephrin B2 proteins are very similar in all mammals – animals including bats, mice and humans - but we don’t know if this molecule is the virus receptor in bats. Certainly there are factors at play in bats that limit the ability of viruses like Hendra and Nipah to replicate,” he said.
There are more bats in the world than any other mammal, in fact one in every five mammal species is a bat.
They are widely distributed, living in more parts of the globe than any other mammal, other than humans.
The Australian Biosecurity Cooperative Research Centre funded a collaborative CSIRO research project, enabling researchers to test for potential SARS virus infection in different animals, determining that bats are the natural host of SARS.
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