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Abstract
Bats are often claimed to be a major source for future viral epidemics, as they are associated with several viruses with zoonotic potential. Here we describe the presence and biodiversity of bats associated with intensive pig farms devoted to the production of heavy pigs in northern Italy. Since chiropters or signs of their presence were not found within animal shelters in our study area, we suggest that fecal viruses with high environmental resistance have the highest likelihood for spillover through indirect transmission. In turn, we investigated the circulation of mammalian orthoreoviruses (MRVs), coronaviruses (CoVs) and astroviruses (AstVs) in pigs and bats sharing the same environment. Results of our preliminary study did not show any bat virus in pigs suggesting that spillover from these animals is rare. However, several AstVs, CoVs and MRVs circulated undetected in pigs. Among those, one MRV was a reassortant strain carrying viral genes likely acquired from bats. On the other hand, we found a swine AstV and a MRV strain carrying swine genes in bat guano, indicating that viral exchange at the bat–pig interface might occur more frequently from pigs to bats rather than the other way around. Considering the indoor farming system as the most common system in the European Union (EU), preventive measures should focus on biosecurity rather than displacement of bats, which are protected throughout the EU and provide critical ecosystem services for rural settings.
Highlights
Introduction affiliationsThe number of emerging zoonotic and epizootic pathogens has proven to be increasing in recent years, especially from the wildlife reservoir [1]
Several of the viruses responsible for modern epidemics in both humans and animals have been linked with these animals from an evolutionary point of view, including the newly emerged SARSCoV-2, Nipah, Marburg and Ebola virus and animal pathogens such as the swine acute diarrhea syndrome coronavirus (SADS-CoV), which has caused the death of almost 25,000 piglets across Chinese farms [19,20,21]
We investigated four pig farms for the production of heavy pigs with a potential size ranging between 3000 and 5000 individuals; three of them were located in the region of Friuli Venezia-Giulia and the remaining one was in Veneto (Figure S1)
Summary
Introduction affiliationsThe number of emerging zoonotic and epizootic pathogens has proven to be increasing in recent years, especially from the wildlife reservoir [1]. Several of the viruses responsible for modern epidemics in both humans and animals have been linked with these animals from an evolutionary point of view, including the newly emerged SARSCoV-2, Nipah, Marburg and Ebola virus and animal pathogens such as the swine acute diarrhea syndrome coronavirus (SADS-CoV), which has caused the death of almost 25,000 piglets across Chinese farms [19,20,21]. While all these epidemics originated in Asia or Africa, viruses shown to be a potential risk to animal and human health have been confirmed to widely circulate in European bats as well, including lyssaviruses, filoviruses, coronaviruses, astroviruses, reoviruses, paramyxoviruses, bunyaviruses and hantaviruses [22,23]. Viral emergence might be favored by passages in domestic animals, which could provide an epidemiological link between bats and humans and even amplify the virus
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