Parasite and viral species richness of Southeast Asian bats: Fragmentation of area distribution matters

Gay, Noellie; Olival, Kevin J.; Bumrungsri, Sara; Siriaroonrat, Boripat; Bourgarel, Mathieu; Morand, Serge

The best model explaining viral richness identified investigation effort, distribution shape and colony size (both negatively correlated). The negative correlation observed for colony size does not correspond to what would be predicted by classical epidemiological models where a large colony should harbour more viruses because of a greater pool of susceptible (larger critical community size). One explanation for this finding may be that our measure of colony size does not consider the structural complexity of bat communities. Some bat species live in close proximity with other species. For example, R. leschenaultii can share its roosting site with Miniopterus schreibersii, Rhinolophus rouxii, Rhinolophus lepidus and other fauna such as rock pigeon (Korad and Gaikwad, 2008 ). An important variable to take into account is then the size of the whole community of bat species and the rates of interaction among these species. A large colony size does not also equate with high density in term of epidemiological transmission. The social complexity of bats within a colony may limit the overall contacts between individuals leading to a decrease of parasite diversity, such as observed for the ectoparasite species richness in rodents (Bordes et al., 2007) . However, information on bat sociality or bat community structure is mostly lacking for the investigated bats of SEA, and is an area for future research.