Cameroonian fruit bats harbor divergent viruses, including rotavirus H, bastroviruses, and picobirnaviruses using an alternative genetic code

Yinda, Claude Kwe; Ghogomu, Stephen Mbigha; Conceição-Neto, Nádia; Beller, Leen; Deboutte, Ward; Vanhulle, Emiel; Maes, Piet; Van Ranst, Marc; Matthijnssens, Jelle

Emerging infectious diseases have a serious impact on human health and our economy and unfortunately, their upward trend has not yet been halted (Mackey et al. 2014) . About 60-80% of these emerging infections originate from wildlife including bats (Cleaveland et al. 2001; Taylor et al. 2001) . Some bats (Order Chiroptera) have been implicated as a major reservoir of pathogenic zoonotic viruses such as rabies virus, Marburg virus, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)-and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS)-related coronaviruses (CoVs), Nipah and Hendra viruses (Rupprecht et al. 1995; Chua et al. 2002; Lau et al. 2005; Leroy et al. 2005; Towner et al. 2007; Memish et al. 2013) . Bats make up more than 20% of the $5,500 known terrestrial species of mammals (Nowak 1991; Vaughan and Ryan 2000) and have a combination of features that is believed to enhance their ability to facilitate virus evolution and transmission such as longevity, migratory activity, large and dense roosting communities, and close social interactions (Prendergast et al. 2002; Luis et al. 2013) . Additionally, it has been speculated that some viruses which evolved with bats may use cellular receptors and biochemical pathways which are conserved in mammals that evolved later, thus enhancing their ability to transmit these viruses to other mammals including humans (Calisher et al. 2006) . Apart from human behavioral changes (driven by increasing human populations) and spatial expansion of agriculture, direct contact with bats through hunting, selling, and/or eating might provide great opportunity for such zoonotic transmissions (Morse 2001) , which is the case in Lysoka, Limbe and Moyuka in the Southwest Region of Cameroon.