Immune System Modulation and Viral Persistence in Bats: Understanding Viral Spillover

Subudhi, Sonu; Rapin, Noreen; Misra, Vikram

Other studies on Marburg virus transmission among Egyptian rosette bats (R. aegyptiacus) showed that bats naturally infected by other experimentally inoculated bats, seem to have a prolonged incubation period [42, 43] . Furthermore, the infected bats remained viremic and shed infectious virus for up to three weeks, after which there was no detectable virus in blood, oral swabs and urine samples. Despite the lack of detectable virus, even four months after initial infection, experimentally inoculated bats were able to transmit the virus to other contact bats [43] . One of the ways in which this can be explained is that Marburg virus persisted in the bats (probably in the spleen [42] ), and a decrease in antibody levels led to increase in viral load which could then be shed to infect other bats/animals. A bat coronavirus was also shown to persistently infect North American little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) [44] . Little brown bats in captivity were able to harbor the coronavirus in their intestines and lungs during hibernation for a period of four months. In addition, there was no significant pathology seen in the bat tissues.