Abstract

Bats are crucial for proper functioning of an ecosystem. They provide various important services to ecosystem and environment. While, bats are well-known carrier of pathogenic viruses, their possible role as a potential carrier of pathogenic bacteria is under-explored. Here, using culture-based approach, employing multiple bacteriological media, over thousand bacteria were cultivated and identified from Rousettus leschenaultii (a frugivorous bat species), the majority of which were from the family Enterobacteriaceae and putative pathogens. Next, pathogenic potential of most frequently cultivated component of microbiome i.e. Escherichia coli was assessed to identify its known pathotypes which revealed the presence of virulent factors in many cultivated E. coli isolates. Applying in-depth bacterial community analysis using high-throughput 16 S rRNA gene sequencing, a high inter-individual variation was observed among the studied guano samples. Interestingly, a higher diversity of bacterial communities was observed in decaying guano representative. The search against human pathogenic bacteria database at 97% identity, a small proportion of sequences were found associated to well-known human pathogens. The present study thus indicates that this bat species may carry potential bacterial pathogens and advice to study the effect of these pathogens on bats itself and the probable mode of transmission to humans and other animals.

Highlights

  • Bats are crucial for proper functioning of an ecosystem

  • Insectivorous bats serve as natural pest control agents clearing several tons of insect pests in a single night and saving millions of dollars otherwise required in agricultural pesticides[3]

  • Sequence analysis of the cytochrome B gene amplified from total extracted DNA of the guano pellets revealed that the collected fecal pellets were from a single bat species i.e. Rousettus leschenaultii, a predominant bat species reported from the Robber’s cave[23]

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Summary

Introduction

Bats are crucial for proper functioning of an ecosystem. They provide various important services to ecosystem and environment. The recent outbreaks include SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome)[5], MERS (Middle East respiratory syndromes)[6] and the most recent one Ebola virus outbreak[7] While their role in virus transmission is well-established[8], bats have recognized as a potential source of fungal[9,10] and bacterial pathogens[11,12]. It has been indicated that bats blood can harbor Bartonella myotimonensis which is considered as an important human pathogen These pathogen carrying bats can transmit these bacteria via their ectoparasites to other animals, may cause zoonosis[12].

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