The Virome of Bats Inhabiting Brazilian Biomes: Knowledge Gaps and Biases towards Zoonotic Viruses
Gabriel Luz Wallau, Eder Barbier, Alexandru Tomazatos, Jonas Schmidt‐Chanasit, Enrico Bernard
Abstract
Bat-borne viruses have attracted much attention due to zoonotic outbreaks with large consequences to humans. Because of that, virus characterization in bats has been prioritized in tropical regions of the globe. However, bat-virus research in Latin America and particularly in Brazil, which are among the most bat species-rich regions of the world, are highly biased toward zoonotic viruses and known bat reservoir species. These results have direct implication for virus studies in general but also for new zoonotic virus and spillover events characterization. The limited knowledge we currently have about the virome of Brazilian bats drastically limits any broad assessment of zoonotic viruses they carry and calls for coordinated and large-scale studies to fill this crucial knowledge gap.