Detection of alpha and betacoronaviruses in multiple Iberian bat species

Falcón, Ana; Vázquez-Morón, Sonia; Casas, Inmaculada; Aznar, Carolina; Ruiz, Guillermo; Pozo, Francisco; Perez-Breña, Pilar; Juste, Javier; Ibáñez, Carlos; Garin, Inazio; Aihartza, Joxerra; Echevarría, Juan E.

The emergence of infectious diseases is a major threat to global public health in this century (WHO, World Health Report http://www.who.int/whr/previous/en/index.html) and many of these new infectious human diseases are caused by viruses emerging from wildlife. In the last 50 years, more than 30 new infectious human diseases have been identified (WHO, World Health Report http://www.who.int/whr/previous/en/index.html) including the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The aetiological agent of this disease was identified as a previously unknown coronavirus (SARS-CoV) [1] and BatCoV are putative precursors of SARS-CoV [2] . The outbreak of SARS-CoV and subsequent identification of two additional human coronaviruses (HCoV-NL63 [3] and HCoV-HKU1 [4] ) has drawn human and animal health attention to Coronavirinae subfamily, that includes three genera, Alphacoronavirus (a CoV), Betacoronavirus (b CoV) and Gammacoronavirus (c CoV), replacing the classical groups 1, 2 and 3 [5] (http://talk.ictvonline.org/ media/g/vertebrate-2008/default.aspx).