REsilience and VIrus ecology of paleotropical BAts (REVIBA)

在过去的几十年里，人们越来越多地观察到野生动物对人类种群的病毒溢出，这可能是由于人类越来越多地侵蚀自然生态系统的结果。人为土地利用的变化经常增加野生动物与人类之间的接触地带(生态驱动因素)，但尚不清楚栖息地干扰是否促进了野生动物物种中病毒的流行，如果是的话，栖息地退化造成的长期压力是否增加了病毒的脱落和传播风险(生理驱动因素)。在拟议的工作中，我们询问栖息地干扰是否根据食虫蝙蝠的栖息习性和社会性导致应激诱导的免疫抑制和病毒流行率的增加。我们的研究地点位于沙巴州(马来西亚婆罗洲的一部分)，包括古老的生长、选择性砍伐和碎片化的森林，这反映了人类入侵森林栖息地的常见顺序。我们将在两对同类蝙蝠(菊头蝠和角头蝠)中使用比较方法，这两对蝙蝠在栖息地选择(洞穴与植物结构)或社会性(群体与独居)上存在差异。这项研究将阐明生理驱动因素在促进病毒疾病溢出中的作用，并将确定生理驱动因素是否根据野生动物的生理弹性作用于野生动物物种。据我所知，这将是描述野生动物中病毒传播风险的生理、生态和社会驱动因素之间相互作用的第一项研究。

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.