Detection of diverse viruses in alimentary specimens of bats in Macau

• Published in: Virologica Sinica 2017-06, Vol.32 (3), p.226-234
• Main Authors: Liang, Jie, Yang, Xing-Lou, Li, Bei, Liu, Qi, Zhang, Qin, Liu, Hui, Kan, Hon-Pio, Wong, Kai-Chin, Chek, Si-Nga, He, Xiangyang, Peng, Xingwen, Shi, Zheng-Li, Wu, Yi, Zhang, Libiao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Bats; Biochemistry; Biodiversity; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Chiroptera; Coronaviridae; Coronaviruses; Disease transmission; Feces - virology; Gambling industry; Hepatitis; Hepatitis A; Infectious diseases; Macau; Medical Microbiology; Microbial Genetics and Genomics; Microbiology; Nucleic acids; Oncology; Population structure; Public health; Research Article; Surveillance; Virology; Viruses; Viruses - classification; Viruses - isolation & purification; Zoonoses; 冠状病毒; 副粘病毒; 国际化大都市; 戊型肝炎病毒; 检测; 消化器官; 澳门; 蝙蝠
• ISSN: 1674-0769; 1995-820X
• DOI: 10.1007/s12250-017-3976-9

Bats carry a variety of viruses, and some of them cause public health problems. Macau, which is famous for its gambling industry, has a complex population structure. The globalization in such an international metropolis has enhanced the chance of disease transmission. Therefore, surveillance of zoonotic viruses is necessary for the early warning of potential emerging infectious diseases.Here, we report the first surveillance of bat viruses in Macau. In this study, we collected 1004 samples involving 10 bat species from 7 sites from April 2015 to May 2016, and examined the presence of viruses using nucleic acid-based methods. Coronaviruses, adenoviruses and paramyxoviruses were detected in these samples, with a high prevalence of coronaviruses. While,none was positive for hepatitis A virus, hepatitis E virus or hantavirus. Co-infections are not common in those bat species, but coronavirus HKU6 and adenovirus can be found commonly occurred in Myotis ricketti.