REsilience and VIrus ecology of paleotropical BAts (REVIBA)

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Viral spill-over from wildlife into human populations has been increasingly observed over the past decades, probably as a result of the increasing encroachment of humans in natural ecosystems. Changes in anthropogenic land use frequently increase the contact zone between wildlife and humans (ecological driver), yet it is unknown whether habitat disturbances promote virus prevalence in wildlife species, and if it does so, whether chronic stress caused by habitat degradation is increasing virus shedding and transmission risk (physiological driver). In the proposed work, we ask if habitat disturbance causes stress-induced immune-suppression and an increasing virus prevalence in insectivorous bats according to their roosting habit and sociality. Our study site is located in Sabah (part of Malaysian Borneo) and includes old growth, selectively logged and fragmented forest, which reflects the usual sequence of human encroachment in forest habitats. We will use a comparative approach in two congeneric pairs of bat species (Rhinolophus and Kerivoula), where pairs differ either in roost choice (caves versus plant structures) or sociality (group versus solitary living). This study will elucidate the role of physiological drivers in promoting the spill-over of viral diseases, and will determine whether physiological drivers act on wildlife species according to their physiological resilience. To my knowledge, this will be the first study to delineate the interactions between physiological, ecological and social drivers of virus transmission risk in wildlife species.