Abstract
Rodents (order Rodentia), followed by bats (order Chiroptera), comprise the largest percentage of living mammals on earth. Thus, it is not surprising that these two orders account for many of the reservoirs of the zoonotic RNA viruses discovered to date. The spillover of these viruses from wildlife to human do not typically result in pandemics but rather geographically confined outbreaks of human infection and disease. While limited geographically, these viruses cause thousands of cases of human disease each year. In this review, we focus on three questions regarding zoonotic viruses that originate in bats and rodents. First, what biological strategies have evolved that allow RNA viruses to reside in bats and rodents? Second, what are the environmental and ecological causes that drive viral spillover? Third, how does virus spillover occur from bats and rodents to humans?
Highlights
Globalization, environmental and anthropogenic changes provide ample opportunities for spillover and emergence of zoonotic diseases [1,2,3]
We focus on three questions regarding zoonotic viruses that originate in bats and rodents
There is a lack of literature for many viruses in conjunction with their natural reservoir host in each of these areas, so we present examples of key areas of research that would benefit from continued research in the natural reservoir host and in their intermediate spillover hosts
Summary
Globalization, environmental and anthropogenic changes provide ample opportunities for spillover and emergence of zoonotic diseases [1,2,3]. Following infection, humans are “dead-end” hosts, and the virus is not transmitted further from person to person These outbreaks are limited to the geographic distribution of the reservoir, but collectively, they have resulted in hundreds of thousands of infections and case fatalities. Various combinations of strategies have evolved that are not universal across all virus-reservoir host relationships, which include but are not limited to, limiting the pathogenesis of the viral infection, the ability of the virus-reservoir interplay to modulate the immune response such that the virus may persist, the behavioral and demographic characteristics of bats and rodents that promote endemic maintenance of the viruses they harbor, and the inherent genetic plasticity of RNA viruses. There is a lack of literature for many viruses in conjunction with their natural reservoir host in each of these areas, so we present examples of key areas of research that would benefit from continued research in the natural reservoir host and in their intermediate spillover hosts
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