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 ordination of residual values of PSR obtained from the linear regression between PSR and sampling effort identified bat species with higher values than expected by the linear regression model: M. minimus; Penthetor lucasi; and Rousettus leschenaultii, etc. Of the 41 bat species studied, half of species with positive residual values are known to carry emerging or potentially emerging viruses: Nipah virus; Australian bat lyssavirus; Phnom Penh bat virus; Kaeng Khoi virus; and Coronaviruses. It may reveal a high level of virus screening in bat species of the same genus. For example, the genus Rhinolophus was considered as a reservoir of a huge diversity of bat-SARS-like Coronaviruses in both Asia and Europe (Wang et al., 2011; Balboni et al., 2012) . Rhinolophus was the target of many investigations for Coronavirus discovery (e.g., Lau et al., 2005; Li et al., 2005; Tang et al., 2006) . However, disparities in sampling effort among species of a same genus were noted. Rhinolophus sinicus, Rhinolophus malayanus and R. acuminatus seem overinvestigated and an increase in sampling effort may not improve pathogen discovery, whereas other species of the genus need more investigation (e.g., Rhinolophus macrotis, Rhinolophus pearsonii, Rhinolophus pusillus and Rhinolophus affinis). Fig. 2 . Principal Component Analysis performed on the following potential determinants of parasite species and viral diversities: bat body size (weight); number of publications for each bat species (pub species); number of publications of parasites of each bat species (pub para); bat range distribution (range); distribution shape or fragmentation (fragmentation); colony size (colony); breeding seasons (breeding); roosting site (roosting); and IUCN status (status).