Informing biosurveillance: Contribution of pteropodid fruit bats to virus spillover in the Philippines
Abstract
Bats are reservoirs for a multitude of zoonotic viruses. Cross-species transmission of batborne viruses to naïve hosts can result in mortality. However, predicting transmission risk is challenging. Environmental and biological factors contribute to population level virus shedding, but little is known about the mechanistic drivers of shedding episodes. Efficacious biosurveillance can improve understanding of virus shedding pulses. Thus we propose to identify temporal trends in viral shedding and seroprevalence of high priority pathogens in fruit bats and determine the exposure of incidental hosts, such as humans and wild and domestic animals in the Philippines. The Philippines has experienced previous outbreaks of Japanese encephalitis virus, avian influenza virus subtype H5N6, Reston virus, Nipah virus and recently, the African swine fever virus, highlighting knowledge gaps in bat-borne zoonotic virus circulation. Our findings will identify risk factors that promote virus transmission. We will also obtain serological samples from humans, livestock and non-human primates near sampling sites to establish evidence of previous spill-over. We will build surveillance and advance diagnostic capabilities at the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine (RITM) in the Philippines, train numerous students, scientists, researchers and technicians, and initiate standardization of data collection to facilitate genomic analyses.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jun 14, 2022
- Source ID
- HDTRA12110037
Entities
People
- Ian H Mendenhall
Organizations
- Defense Threat Reduction Agency
- National University of Singapore