In the coronavirus family, SARS-CoV-2, responsible for Covid-19, is not the only one subject to increased surveillance. As Gizmodo notes, scientists have just highlighted the presence of a new strain in Brazilian bats, all the more worrying as it could well be transmissible to humans.
According to the preliminary study carried out by this important team of Brazilian and Japanese researchers, the related virus seems genetically distinct from other coronaviruses, but on the other hand shares a characteristic with SARS-CoV-2 allowing it to infect human cells. The results suggest the presence of many native bat coronaviruses in the wild, likely to cause new outbreaks in our ranks.
Surveillance at half mast
“The high diversity of viruses in bats positions them as a key taxonomic group for zoonotic disease surveillance”write the authors in their article. For the record, this last adjective comes from the noun “zoonosis”, which designates diseases and infections (including parasitic) whose agents are naturally transmitted from animals to humans – and vice versa.
If surveillance linked to different types of coronavirus is not new – or even 2020 –, the scientists behind the study explain that until now, the vast majority of data collected came from Asia, Africa and the Middle East. This explains their desire to take samples in other territories. It was on Brazilian soil that the team was able to analyze the intestinal tissues of bats mainly present on the American continent, the Pteronotus parnellii.
The researchers then found this unknown form of coronavirus and were able to sequence the entire genome of the species. According to their analysis, this virus which they named BRZ batCoV presents sufficient genetic characteristics to be considered as the first representative of a previously unknown subgenus of betacoronavirus, joining five subgenera already identified.
If this virus particularly puts the scientific community on alert, it is because its coagulation factor binding site (FCS) only differs from that of SARS-CoV-2, the cause of human contamination, by only one amino acid. Researchers also say they are concerned about the lack of surveillance in Brazil and the rest of America, leading them to fear that other viruses of concern may have been circulating for some time without being detected or studied. If we still do not know the extent of the infectious potential of BRZ batCoV, concern is warranted.
