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Review
. 2023 Nov 18;9(12):e22351.
doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e22351. eCollection 2023 Dec.

Bat-associated microbes: Opportunities and perils, an overview

J Dhivahar  1   2   3 , Anutthaman Parthasarathy  4 , Kathiravan Krishnan  3 , Basavaraj S Kovi  5 , Ganesh N Pandian  5
Affiliations
Review

Bat-associated microbes: Opportunities and perils, an overview

J Dhivahar et al. Heliyon. .

Abstract

The potential biotechnological uses of bat-associated bacteria are discussed briefly, indicating avenues for biotechnological applications of bat-associated microbes. The uniqueness of bats in terms of their lifestyle, genomes and molecular immunology may predispose bats to act as disease reservoirs. Molecular phylogenetic analysis has shown several instances of bats harbouring the ancestral lineages of bacterial (Bartonella), protozoal (Plasmodium, Trypanosoma cruzi) and viral (SARS-CoV2) pathogens infecting humans. Along with the transmission of viruses from bats, we also discuss the potential roles of bat-associated bacteria, fungi, and protozoan parasites in emerging diseases. Current evidence suggests that environmental changes and interactions between wildlife, livestock, and humans contribute to the spill-over of infectious agents from bats to other hosts. Domestic animals including livestock may act as intermediate amplifying hosts for bat-origin pathogens to transmit to humans. An increasing number of studies investigating bat pathogen diversity and infection dynamics have been published. However, whether or how these infectious agents are transmitted both within bat populations and to other hosts, including humans, often remains unknown. Metagenomic approaches are uncovering the dynamics and distribution of potential pathogens in bat microbiomes, which might improve the understanding of disease emergence and transmission. Here, we summarize the current knowledge on bat zoonoses of public health concern and flag the gaps in the knowledge to enable further research and allocation of resources for tackling future outbreaks.

Keywords: Bartonella; Bat seeding; Bats; Borrelia; Coronavirus; MERS; Plasmodium; SARS; SARS-CoV-2; Trypanosoma cruzi; Zoonotic disease.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Routes of transmission of bat pathogens to humans in the ecosystem.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Speciation of Trypanosoma lineages in different hosts showing diversification from bat lineages in Africa. The phylogenetic tree is adapted from Clément et al. [206] and not drawn to scale. The red lineages originate in bats and T. cruzi is a major human pathogen.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Anthropogenic factors affecting zoonotic disease emergence in bats.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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