Furthermore, it is quite clear that humans and bats are cross-visitors of each other’s habitats! The main assumption is that these flying mammals visit human settlements more often than humans visit their natural habitats. Bats revealed versatile feeding behavior they have a flying capacity and inherent characteristics which makes them as highly potent vectors and natural reservoir hosts for many pathogens. Although bats are geographically widespread, the ecology of their microbial communities and the role involved in bat health and behavior are scarce, especially on the microbiota residing in bat’s excreta accumulated in the form of guano, which could be potentially involved in pathogen transmission to humans (Dietrich et al. This review provides an overview of bat guano microbiota diversity and the significance of autochthonous and pathogenic taxa for humans and the environment, highlighting better understanding in preventing emerging diseases.īats ( Chiroptera) are a diverse group of mammals with more than 1400 different species with abilities to inhabit various ecological niches and environments (Winter et al. Bat guano is the most suitable substrate for fungal reproduction and dissemination, including pathogenic yeasts and keratinophilic and dimorphic human pathogenic fungi known as notorious causative agents of severe endemic mycoses like histoplasmosis and fatal cryptococcosis, especially deadly in immunocompromised individuals. Thus, the presence of multi-drug-resistant bacteria as environmental reservoirs of extended spectrum β-lactamases and carbapenemase-producing strains has been confirmed. Additionally, many bacterial and fungal pathogens were identified as common guano residents. Bats are well known as a natural reservoir of many zoonotic viruses such as Ebola, Nipah, Marburg, lyssaviruses, rabies, henipaviruses, and many coronaviruses which caused a high number of outbreaks including ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. ![]() Furthermore, the use of novel high-throughput sequencing technologies allows better insight in guano microbiome and potentially indicated that some species could be typical guano-dwelling members. Therefore, getting new insights in the microbiome of bat guano from different places represents an imperative for the future. Accelerated deforestation, urbanization, and anthropization hastily lead to overpopulation of the bats in urban areas allowing easy interaction with other animals, expansion, and emergence of new zoonotic disease outbreaks potentially harmful to humans. Bats as flying mammals are potent vectors and natural reservoir hosts for many infectious viruses, bacteria, and fungi, also detected in their excreta such as guano.
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