Abstract
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has stimulated a search for reservoirs and species potentially involved in back and forth transmission. Studies have postulated bats as one of the key reservoirs of coronaviruses (CoVs), and different CoVs have been detected in bats. So far, CoVs have not been found in bats in Sweden and we therefore tested whether they carry CoVs. In summer 2020, we sampled a total of 77 adult bats comprising 74 Myotis daubentonii, 2 Pipistrellus pygmaeus, and 1 M. mystacinus bats in southern Sweden. Blood, saliva and feces were sampled, processed and subjected to a virus next-generation sequencing target enrichment protocol. An Alphacoronavirus was detected and sequenced from feces of a M. daubentonii adult female bat. Phylogenetic analysis of the almost complete virus genome revealed a close relationship with Finnish and Danish strains. This was the first finding of a CoV in bats in Sweden, and bats may play a role in the transmission cycle of CoVs in Sweden. Focused and targeted surveillance of CoVs in bats is warranted, with consideration of potential conflicts between public health and nature conservation required as many bat species in Europe are threatened and protected.
Highlights
In the last decade, coronaviruses (CoVs) have gained interest due to the severity of outbreaks they cause [1]
We studied if CoVs occur in bats sampled in southern Sweden, and to which degree any found CoVs are related to CoVs found in neighboring countries
A total of 77 bats were sampled from nine different locations in southern Sweden (Figure 1 and Table 1)
Summary
Coronaviruses (CoVs) have gained interest due to the severity of outbreaks they cause [1]. It is believed that CoVs are capable of spilling over from wildlife reservoirs to humans because they circulate in multiple hosts, including bats, birds and humans. CoVs are grouped into four distinct genera, in which Alpha- and Betacoronavirus infect mammals, while Gamma- and Deltacoronavirus mainly are found in birds [4]. Alpha-CoVs include 14 viral genera and 19 species [6]. The majority of alpha-CoVs are bat CoVs, and are hosted by numerous bat species, but they infect other animals such as pigs, dogs, cats and rodents [6]. SARS-CoV-2 belongs to the Betacoronavirus genus, and has been shown to form a distinct clade in lineage B of the subgenus Sarbecovirus, together with a bat-derived SARS-CoV-like strain bat-SL-CoVZC45 [10]
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