Two Novel Parvoviruses in Frugivorous New and Old World Bats

Canuti, Marta; Eis-Huebinger, Anna Maria; Deijs, Martin; de Vries, Michel; Drexler, Jan Felix; Oppong, Samuel K.; Müller, Marcel A.; Klose, Stefan M.; Wellinghausen, Nele; Cottontail, Veronika M.; Kalko, Elisabeth K. V.; Drosten, Christian; van der Hoek, Lia

Globally, bats are, among mammals, one of the most diverse and species-rich groups of vertebrates and, together with humans and rodents, they are the most broadly dispersed mammalian species. They live frequently in large groups and can reach very high densities in roosts where up to millions of bats may cluster in tight spaces [2] . Bats are the only mammals able to fly and some species regularly travel more than 3000 km crossing large stretches of land and water barriers [37] . All these characteristics offer the opportunity to pathogens to easily be maintained within the population and to be diffused in other populations and different geographical areas. The scientific community increasingly recognizes bats as natural reservoir host for many zoonotic diseases including a wide range of viruses with important implications for human and animal health [5, 7, 38, 39] .