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. 2019 Sep;1(2):84-90.
doi: 10.1016/j.bsheal.2019.10.004. Epub 2019 Nov 9.

Human-animal interactions and bat coronavirus spillover potential among rural residents in Southern China

Hongying Li  1   2 , Emma Mendelsohn  1 , Chen Zong  3 , Wei Zhang  4 , Emily Hagan  1 , Ning Wang  4 , Shiyue Li  4 , Hong Yan  5 , Huimin Huang  5 , Guangjian Zhu  1 , Noam Ross  1 , Aleksei Chmura  1 , Philip Terry  6 , Mark Fielder  2 , Maureen Miller  7 , Zhengli Shi  4 , Peter Daszak  1
Affiliations

Human-animal interactions and bat coronavirus spillover potential among rural residents in Southern China

Hongying Li et al. Biosaf Health. 2019 Sep.

Abstract

Human interaction with animals has been implicated as a primary risk factor for several high impact zoonoses, including many bat-origin viral diseases. However the animal-to-human spillover events that lead to emerging diseases are rarely observed or clinically examined, and the link between specific interactions and spillover risk is poorly understood. To investigate this phenomenon, we conducted biological-behavioral surveillance among rural residents in Yunnan, Guangxi, and Guangdong districts of Southern China, where we have identified a number of SARS-related coronaviruses in bats. Serum samples were tested for four bat-borne coronaviruses using newly developed enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). Survey data were used to characterize associations between human-animal contact and bat coronavirus spillover risk. A total of 1,596 residents were enrolled in the study from 2015 to 2017. Nine participants (0.6%) tested positive for bat coronaviruses. 265 (17%) participants reported severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) and/or influenza-like illness (ILI) symptoms in the past year, which were associated with poultry, carnivore, rodent/shrew, or bat contact, with variability by family income and district of residence. This study provides serological evidence of bat coronavirus spillover in rural communities in Southern China. The low seroprevalence observed in this study suggests that bat coronavirus spillover is a rare event. Nonetheless, this study highlights associations between human-animal interaction and zoonotic spillover risk. These findings can be used to support targeted biological behavioral surveillance in high-risk geographic areas in order to reduce the risk of zoonotic disease emergence.

Keywords: Bat coronavirus; Disease emergence; Human-animal interaction; Rural community; Southern China.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Figure 1
Animal contact by taxa and activities. Values and shading represent the survey population; red numbers in the upper-right corners of the cells indicate the number of seropositive individuals with the given contact.
Fig. 2
Figure 2
Most salient predictors of self-reported ILI and/or SARI symptoms in the last year (s = bootstrap support; n = count positive out of 1,585 respondents). Bootstrap support values ≥ 0.6 are demonstrated here, meaning they were identified as associated with the outcome for 60% or more of the bootstrap iterations. Odds ratios >1 (orange) are positively associated with the outcome, and odds ratios <1 (purple) are negatively associated with the outcome.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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