Bats are one of the world’s most abundantly diverse and geographically spread mammalian species (Schountz, 2014). When bats come to mind, one would generally associate them with haunted or dark environments, but the main reason why bats are feared has to do with their ability to act as reservoirs for pathogens that cause infectious diseases in humans. Reservoirs of pathogens are essentially places where the pathogen is able to grow and accumulate over time. The reservoir and the pathogen have a stable relationship, which allows for little to no signs of the disease to show up in the host (Strelkauskas et al., 2010). A balance that is mutually beneficial to the hosts response mechanism and virus replication is essential, meaning that the pathogen
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This viral respiratory illness is a subset of the Coronaviridae family, SARS-CoV (Center of Disease Control and Prevention, 2013). The initial outbreak of this new subset began in November 2002 in southern China and spread to another 33 countries around the world. This virus infected approximately over 8,000 people before it was brought under control in July of 2003; killing over 700 people during this period (Wang et al., 2006). From late 2003 to early 2004 another outbreak occurred in the southern part of China, but was quickly contained seeing as there have not been any reported cases around the world since then. With this sudden and sporadic outbreak of SARS-CoV in 2002, there was an immediate need to find out the origin of this disease. In one research, a group of 309 bats from the southern parts of China in which the SARS-CoV virus originated were tested. This experiment found that antibodies to the recombinant N protein for this virus were predominant in three species of bats: Rhinolophus perasonni, Rhinolophus pussilus, and Rhinolophus macrotis (Lin-Fa et al., 2006). Genome sequencing of the SARS-CoV in these bats showed that they were almost identical to the isolated SARS-CoV from humans, sharing a sequence identity ranging from 88% to 92% (Wang et al., 2006). Sequencing also showed that there was much more genetic diversity of SARS-CoV in bats than in humans, …show more content…
The pandemic of this disease originated on September 1994 in a suburban area located in Brisbane, Australia. Killing 13 horses and 1 human, this virus was soon found to be a possible member of the Paramyxoviridae viral family. About a month later a second human fatality and another 8 horse fatalities were reported. But through further analysis, researchers found that this specific virus could not really fall under any pre-existing subset in the Paramyxoviridae family, thus making a new subset known as the Hendra virus (Williamson et al., 1998). The last reported cases of HeV were documented in July of 2008 (World Health Organization, 2015). Through eastern Queensland extensive serological surveys were made and researchers found that antibodies made to fight against HeV could not be found in humans or horses, or any other animal surveyed, but were present in Pteropus spp. (fruit fox bat) (Halpin et al., 2000). For further confirmation as to whether or not bats were the actual reservoirs, the HeV virus in the bats were isolated and compared to the HeV from the previously fatal cases. This isolation proposed that a possible mechanism for transmission could be through direct contact with products released during the birthing process. In a study done by Halpin, Young, Field and Mackenzie, three different isolation of the virus were obtained from the uterine fluid along with the fetal lung
This viral respiratory illness is a subset of the Coronaviridae family, SARS-CoV (Center of Disease Control and Prevention, 2013). The initial outbreak of this new subset began in November 2002 in southern China and spread to another 33 countries around the world. This virus infected approximately over 8,000 people before it was brought under control in July of 2003; killing over 700 people during this period (Wang et al., 2006). From late 2003 to early 2004 another outbreak occurred in the southern part of China, but was quickly contained seeing as there have not been any reported cases around the world since then. With this sudden and sporadic outbreak of SARS-CoV in 2002, there was an immediate need to find out the origin of this disease. In one research, a group of 309 bats from the southern parts of China in which the SARS-CoV virus originated were tested. This experiment found that antibodies to the recombinant N protein for this virus were predominant in three species of bats: Rhinolophus perasonni, Rhinolophus pussilus, and Rhinolophus macrotis (Lin-Fa et al., 2006). Genome sequencing of the SARS-CoV in these bats showed that they were almost identical to the isolated SARS-CoV from humans, sharing a sequence identity ranging from 88% to 92% (Wang et al., 2006). Sequencing also showed that there was much more genetic diversity of SARS-CoV in bats than in humans, …show more content…
The pandemic of this disease originated on September 1994 in a suburban area located in Brisbane, Australia. Killing 13 horses and 1 human, this virus was soon found to be a possible member of the Paramyxoviridae viral family. About a month later a second human fatality and another 8 horse fatalities were reported. But through further analysis, researchers found that this specific virus could not really fall under any pre-existing subset in the Paramyxoviridae family, thus making a new subset known as the Hendra virus (Williamson et al., 1998). The last reported cases of HeV were documented in July of 2008 (World Health Organization, 2015). Through eastern Queensland extensive serological surveys were made and researchers found that antibodies made to fight against HeV could not be found in humans or horses, or any other animal surveyed, but were present in Pteropus spp. (fruit fox bat) (Halpin et al., 2000). For further confirmation as to whether or not bats were the actual reservoirs, the HeV virus in the bats were isolated and compared to the HeV from the previously fatal cases. This isolation proposed that a possible mechanism for transmission could be through direct contact with products released during the birthing process. In a study done by Halpin, Young, Field and Mackenzie, three different isolation of the virus were obtained from the uterine fluid along with the fetal lung