Showing papers by "DeeAnn M. Reeder published in 2020"

Possibility for reverse zoonotic transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to free-ranging wildlife: A case study of bats.

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the substantial public health, economic, and societal consequences of virus spillover from a wildlife reservoir. Widespread human transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) also presents a new set of challenges when considering viral spillover from people to naive wildlife and other animal populations. The establishment of new wildlife reservoirs for SARS-CoV-2 would further complicate public health control measures and could lead to wildlife health and conservation impacts. Given the likely bat origin of SARS-CoV-2 and related beta-coronaviruses (β-CoVs), free-ranging bats are a key group of concern for spillover from humans back to wildlife. Here, we review the diversity and natural host range of β-CoVs in bats and examine the risk of humans inadvertently infecting free-ranging bats with SARS-CoV-2. Our review of the global distribution and host range of β-CoV evolutionary lineages suggests that 40+ species of temperate-zone North American bats could be immunologically naive and susceptible to infection by SARS-CoV-2. We highlight an urgent need to proactively connect the wellbeing of human and wildlife health during the current pandemic and to implement new tools to continue wildlife research while avoiding potentially severe health and conservation impacts of SARS-CoV-2 "spilling back" into free-ranging bat populations.

Integrating Biodiversity Infrastructure into Pathogen Discovery and Mitigation of Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Abstract: JOSEPH A. COOK, SATORU ARAI, BLAS ARMIÉN, JOHN BATES, CARLOS A. CARRION BONILLA, MARIA BEATRIZ DE SOUZA CORTEZ, JONATHAN L. DUNNUM, ADAM W. FERGUSON, KARL M. JOHNSON, FAISAL ALI ANWARALI KHAN, DEBORAH L. PAUL, DEEANN M. REEDER, MARCIA A. REVELEZ, NANCY B. SIMMONS, BARBARA M. THIERS, CODY W. THOMPSON, NATHAN S. UPHAM, MAARTEN P. M. VANHOVE, PAUL W. WEBALA, MARCELO WEKSLER, RICHARD YANAGIHARA, AND PAMELA S. SOLTIS

Genome-Wide Changes in Genetic Diversity in a Population of Myotis lucifugus Affected by White-Nose Syndrome.

Abstract: Novel pathogens can cause massive declines in populations, and even extirpation of hosts. But disease can also act as a selective pressure on survivors, driving the evolution of resistance or tolerance. Bat white-nose syndrome (WNS) is a rapidly spreading wildlife disease in North America. The fungus causing the disease invades skin tissues of hibernating bats, resulting in disruption of hibernation behavior, premature energy depletion, and subsequent death. We used whole-genome sequencing to investigate changes in allele frequencies within a population of Myotis lucifugus in eastern North America to search for genetic resistance to WNS. Our results show low FST values within the population across time, i.e., prior to WNS (Pre-WNS) compared to the population that has survived WNS (Post-WNS). However, when dividing the population with a geographical cut-off between the states of Pennsylvania and New York, a sharp increase in values on scaffold GL429776 is evident in the Post-WNS samples. Genes present in the diverged area are associated with thermoregulation and promotion of brown fat production. Thus, although WNS may not have subjected the entire M. lucifugus population to selective pressure, it may have selected for specific alleles in Pennsylvania through decreased gene flow within the population. However, the persistence of remnant sub-populations in the aftermath of WNS is likely due to multiple factors in bat life history.

Exceptional Longevity in Little Brown Bats Still Occurs, despite Presence of White-Nose Syndrome

Abstract: White-nose syndrome is an introduced fungal disease that has reduced the size of hibernating populations of little brown bats Myotis lucifugus by 90% across much of eastern North America since 2007. Herein, we report the recapture of eight banded little brown bats, all males, with minimum ages of 18.6–25.6 y. The recaptures occurred during winter 2019–2020, at a hibernaculum in Michigan where white-nose syndrome likely has been present since 2013–2014, indicating that these old and apparently healthy males are in their seventh season of exposure to the disease. Hence, our data suggest that a long life in little brown bats and existence of white-nose syndrome are not necessarily incompatible.

Liberating Biodiversity Data From COVID-19 Lockdown: Toward a knowledge hub for mammal host-virus information

Abstract: A deep irony of COVID-19 likely originating from a bat-borne coronavirus (Boni et al. 2020) is that the global lockdown to quell the pandemic also locked up physical access to much basic knowledge regarding bat biology. Digital access to data on the ecology, geography, and taxonomy of potential viral reservoirs, from Southeast Asian horseshoe bats and pangolins to North American deer mice, was suddenly critical for understanding the disease's emergence and spread. However, much of this information lay inside rare books and personal files rather than as open, linked, and queryable resources on the internet. Even the world's experts on mammal taxonomy and zoonotic disease could not retrieve their data from shuttered laboratories. We were caught unprepared. Why, in this digitally ‡ § | ¶ #