Bats Are Human’s Biggest Viral Risk
If you were planning on snuggling up to a bat anytime soon, this might make you re-think.
Bats are the biggest threat of cross-species virus transmission to humans, followed by primates and rats, as research published in Nature reveals.

The US researchers created and analysed a huge database which looked at 754 mammals and all 586 viruses found in mammals, classified as zoonotic viruses. Out of this, they found 263 in humans, and 188 of these were found in at least one other mammal. They found that bats, primates and rats have the biggest potential for carrying viruses which could be transmitted to humans.
The reason why these researchers went looking so deep is because predicting and preventing disease epidemics is incredibly tricky. Scientists know that a lot of infectious diseases often start in animals, especially mammals, but out of the many species that exist it’s hard to know where to look.
Patterns emerged from their analyses, such as the contributing factors for the likeliness of zoonotic viruses spreading to humans which include: relatedness to humans, potential for human-animal contact, and underlying viral traits.
Combined with knowledge about the geography of where these viruses in particular mammals can be found, and where said mammals are prominent, researchers can begin to work out where there are ‘missing viruses’ or ‘missing zoonoses’ (infectious diseases of animals that can be transmitted to humans).
This power to predict could help with targeted surveillance for potential new viruses that pose a risk to human health.
- Link to original research article: dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature22975
Originally published on Australia’s Science Channel: https://www.australiascience.tv/bats-are-humans-biggest-viral-risk/
