Abstract

Bats, an ancient and diverse group of ecologically important mammals have recently attracted more attention as an important reservoir for several lethal zoonotic viral infections of humans and animals. Although they provide essential beneficial ecological services such as eating vast quantities of disease-carrying insects like mosquitoes and pollinating economically important plants, they have been maligned for harbouring numerous zoonotic viruses. An accurate knowledge of pathogen, host and disease dynamics, mechanisms of pathogen persistence and ecological factors underlying the disease emergence and reasons and timing of spill over to humans would help in forecasting the occurrence of such diseases and formulating possible preventive and mitigation strategies. In this article, we look at a few zoonotic disease epidemics that are thought to have originated from bats. Factors that permitted these viruses to "jump" the species barrier from bats to other animals, as well as a specific adaption in bats that may allow them to harbour these viruses without causing serious illness in them were also speculated.

Keywords : Bats, Chiroptera, Emerging epidemics, Viral zoonoses, Virus