Wide Diversity of Coronaviruses in Frugivorous and Insectivorous Bat Species: A Pilot Study in Guinea, West Africa.

Audrey Lacroix,Moriba Povogui,Souana Goumou,Nicole Vidal,Ahidjo Ayouba,Antoine Nkuba,Amandine Esteban,Abdoulaye Toure,Jean-Louis Monemou,Eric Delaporte,Ramadan Diallo,Abdoul Soumah,Vincent Foulongne,Martine Peeters,Raisa Raulino,Joel Koivogui,Hélène De Nys,Alpha Keita,Guillaume Thaurignac

doi:10.3390/v12080855

Abstract

Zoonoses can constitute a threat for public health that can have a global importance, as seen with the current COVID-19 pandemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV2). Bats have been recognized as an important reservoir of zoonotic coronaviruses (CoVs). In West Africa, where there is a high diversity of bat species, little is known on the circulation of CoVs in these hosts, especially at the interface with human populations. In this study, in Guinea, we tested a total of 319 bats belonging to 14 genera and six families of insectivorous and frugivorous bats across the country, for the presence of coronaviruses. We found CoVs in 35 (11%) of the tested bats—in three insectivorous bat species and five fruit bat species that were mostly captured close to human habitat. Positivity rates varied from 5.7% to 100%, depending on bat species. A wide diversity of alpha and beta coronaviruses was found across the country, including three sequences belonging to SarbeCoVs and MerbeCoVs subgenera known to harbor highly pathogenic human coronaviruses. Our findings suggest that CoVs are widely spread in West Africa and their circulation should be assessed to evaluate the risk of exposure of potential zoonotic CoVs to humans.

Highlights

Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) represent a significant challenge to global health.The frequency of EID outbreaks has dramatically increased over the last decades
Because discrimination between Epomophorus gambiensis and Micropteropus pusillus was not possible based on cytochrome b (CytB) sequences only, we used morphologic details on forearm and weight measurements to discriminate the species for 93 bats, as previously documented by others [49]
We showed that the same bat species can be infected with different α and/or β-CoV lineages and species; this was seen in L. angolensis, R. aegyptiacus and Hipposideros sp

Summary

Introduction

Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) represent a significant challenge to global health.The frequency of EID outbreaks has dramatically increased over the last decades. Most EIDs have a zoonotic origin; more than 70% of them are caused by pathogens originating from wildlife [1]. The ongoing outbreak with the new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, is a perfect illustration of the potential impact and the global consequences resulting from a single cross-species transmission from an animal virus. A major step in understanding the risk for zoonotic infections, is to characterize the diversity of pathogens at the interface between humans and animals. Prevalence, geographic distribution and the genetic diversity or evolutionary history of pathogens in wildlife is critical to evaluate the risk for potential emergence or reemergence of disease

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