A new genus for a rare African vespertilionid bat: insights from South Sudan

A new genus is proposed for the strikingly patterned African vespertilionid "Glauconycteris" superba Hayman, 1939 on the basis of cranial and external morphological comparisons. A review of the attributes of a newly collected specimen from South Sudan (a new country record) and other museum specimens of "Glauconycteris" superba suggests that "Glauconycteris" superba is markedly distinct ecomorphologically from other species classified in Glauconycteris and is likely the sister taxon to Glauconycteris sensu stricto. The recent capture of this rarely collected but widespread bat highlights the need for continued research in tropical sub-Saharan Africa and in particular, for more work in western South Sudan, which has received very little scientific attention. New country records for Glauconycteris cf. poensis (South Sudan) and Glauconycteris curryae (Gabon) are also reported.DeeAnn M. Reeder, Kristofer M. Helgen, Megan E. Vodzak, Darrin P. Lunde, Imran Ejotr

Genome-wide changes in genetic diversity in a population of Myotis lucifugus affected by white-nose syndrome

Novel pathogens can cause massive declines in populations, and even extirpation of hosts. But disease can also act as a selective pressure on survivors, driving the evolution of resistance or tolerance. Bat white-nose syndrome (WNS) is a rapidly spreading wildlife disease in North America. The fungus causing the disease invades skin tissues of hibernating bats, resulting in disruption of hibernation behavior, premature energy depletion, and subsequent death. We used whole-genome sequencing to investigate changes in allele frequencies within a population of Myotis lucifugus in eastern North America to search for genetic resistance to WNS. Our results show low F-ST values within the population across time, i.e., prior to WNS (Pre-WNS) compared to the population that has survived WNS (Post-WNS). However, when dividing the population with a geographical cut-off between the states of Pennsylvania and New York, a sharp increase in values on scaffold GL429776 is evident in the Post-WNS samples. Genes present in the diverged area are associated with thermoregulation and promotion of brown fat production. Thus, although WNS may not have subjected the entire M. lucifugus population to selective pressure, it may have selected for specific alleles in Pennsylvania through decreased gene flow within the population. However, the persistence of remnant sub-populations in the aftermath of WNS is likely due to multiple factors in bat life history.Peer reviewe

Genome-Wide Changes in Genetic Diversity in a Population of Myotis lucifugus Affected by White-Nose Syndrome

Novel pathogens can cause massive declines in populations, and even extirpation of hosts. But disease can also act as a selective pressure on survivors, driving the evolution of resistance or tolerance. Bat white-nose syndrome (WNS) is a rapidly spreading wildlife disease in North America. The fungus causing the disease invades skin tissues of hibernating bats, resulting in disruption of hibernation behavior, premature energy depletion, and subsequent death. We used whole-genome sequencing to investigate changes in allele frequencies within a population of Myotis lucifugus in eastern North America to search for genetic resistance to WNS. Our results show low F-ST values within the population across time, i.e., prior to WNS (Pre-WNS) compared to the population that has survived WNS (Post-WNS). However, when dividing the population with a geographical cut-off between the states of Pennsylvania and New York, a sharp increase in values on scaffold GL429776 is evident in the Post-WNS samples. Genes present in the diverged area are associated with thermoregulation and promotion of brown fat production. Thus, although WNS may not have subjected the entire M. lucifugus population to selective pressure, it may have selected for specific alleles in Pennsylvania through decreased gene flow within the population. However, the persistence of remnant sub-populations in the aftermath of WNS is likely due to multiple factors in bat life history

Frequent Arousal from Hibernation Linked to Severity of Infection and Mortality in Bats with White-Nose Syndrome

White-nose syndrome (WNS), an emerging infectious disease that has killed over 5.5 million hibernating bats, is named for the causative agent, a white fungus (Geomyces destructans (Gd)) that invades the skin of torpid bats. During hibernation, arousals to warm (euthermic) body temperatures are normal but deplete fat stores. Temperature-sensitive dataloggers were attached to the backs of 504 free-ranging little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) in hibernacula located throughout the northeastern USA. Dataloggers were retrieved at the end of the hibernation season and complete profiles of skin temperature data were available from 83 bats, which were categorized as: (1) unaffected, (2) WNS-affected but alive at time of datalogger removal, or (3) WNS-affected but found dead at time of datalogger removal. Histological confirmation of WNS severity (as indexed by degree of fungal infection) as well as confirmation of presence/absence of DNA from Gd by PCR was determined for 26 animals. We demonstrated that WNS-affected bats aroused to euthermic body temperatures more frequently than unaffected bats, likely contributing to subsequent mortality. Within the subset of WNS-affected bats that were found dead at the time of datalogger removal, the number of arousal bouts since datalogger attachment significantly predicted date of death. Additionally, the severity of cutaneous Gd infection correlated with the number of arousal episodes from torpor during hibernation. Thus, increased frequency of arousal from torpor likely contributes to WNS-associated mortality, but the question of how Gd infection induces increased arousals remains unanswered

Socializing One Health: an innovative strategy to investigate social and behavioral risks of emerging viral threats

In an effort to strengthen global capacity to prevent, detect, and control infectious diseases in animals and people, the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Emerging Pandemic Threats (EPT) PREDICT project funded development of regional, national, and local One Health capacities for early disease detection, rapid response, disease control, and risk reduction. From the outset, the EPT approach was inclusive of social science research methods designed to understand the contexts and behaviors of communities living and working at human-animal-environment interfaces considered high-risk for virus emergence. Using qualitative and quantitative approaches, PREDICT behavioral research aimed to identify and assess a range of socio-cultural behaviors that could be influential in zoonotic disease emergence, amplification, and transmission. This broad approach to behavioral risk characterization enabled us to identify and characterize human activities that could be linked to the transmission dynamics of new and emerging viruses. This paper provides a discussion of implementation of a social science approach within a zoonotic surveillance framework. We conducted in-depth ethnographic interviews and focus groups to better understand the individual- and community-level knowledge, attitudes, and practices that potentially put participants at risk for zoonotic disease transmission from the animals they live and work with, across 6 interface domains. When we asked highly-exposed individuals (ie. bushmeat hunters, wildlife or guano farmers) about the risk they perceived in their occupational activities, most did not perceive it to be risky, whether because it was normalized by years (or generations) of doing such an activity, or due to lack of information about potential risks. Integrating the social sciences allows investigations of the specific human activities that are hypothesized to drive disease emergence, amplification, and transmission, in order to better substantiate behavioral disease drivers, along with the social dimensions of infection and transmission dynamics. Understanding these dynamics is critical to achieving health security--the protection from threats to health-- which requires investments in both collective and individual health security. Involving behavioral sciences into zoonotic disease surveillance allowed us to push toward fuller community integration and engagement and toward dialogue and implementation of recommendations for disease prevention and improved health security

Scotophilus altilis Allen 1914

<i>Scotophilus altilis</i> <p> has likely been neglected over time due to its vague taxonomic delimitation and repeated synonymizations with other, largely acknowledged species, with only two specimens identified as <i>S</i>. <i>altilis</i> except the type series (Allen <i>et al</i>. 1917). A quarter of a century after the description of <i>S</i>. <i>altilis</i>, Allen (1939) himself synonymized this name with <i>murinoflavus</i> von Heuglin, 1861, another rather obscure taxon described from what is today Eritrea. Since this synonymization, the name <i>S</i>. <i>altilis</i> virtually disappeared from contemporary bat science. Several decades later Kock (1969) extracted <i>S</i>. <i>altilis</i> from <i>S</i>. <i>murinoflavus</i>, and placed it within the content of the currently acknowledged species <i>S</i>. <i>leucogaster</i>, as earlier suggested by Aellen (1952). This taxonomic opinion was later shared also by Koopman (1965, 1975, 1994). An alternative synonymization was suggested by Robbins <i>et al</i>. (1985), who tentatively included <i>S</i>. <i>altilis</i> into <i>S</i>. <i>viridis</i>, whose northern populations are currently recognized as <i>S</i>. <i>nigritellus</i> (Trujillo <i>et al</i>. 2009). Most recently, Helgen & McFadden (2001), Simmons (2005) and Van Cakenberghe & Happold (2013) returned to the opinion of Aellen (1952), Kock (1969) and Koopman (1965, 1975, 1994) and listed <i>S</i>. <i>altilis</i> again under the synonymy of the name <i>S</i>. <i>leucogaster</i>.</p> <p> The herein presented molecular and morphological evidence clearly confirms the separate position of the newly captured specimens from Ethiopia, South Sudan and Kenya to other contemporary acknowledged <i>Scotophilus</i> species. Additional studies are required regarding another possible names for this distinct species, given the earlier synonymization with <i>S</i>. <i>murinoflavus</i>. This later taxon was recently mentioned as one of possible names existing for the yellow-bellied forms pertaining to the morphospecies <i>S</i>. <i>dinganii</i> in Ethiopia and Kenya by Vallo <i>et al</i>. (2011), for which <i>S</i>. <i>colias</i> Thomas, 1904, or later <i>S</i>. <i>andrewreborii</i> Brooks and Bickham, 2014, and <i>S</i>. <i>ejetai</i> Brooks and Bickham, 2014, were proposed. Based on its size and external appearance it seems that the earlier synonymization of <i>S</i>. <i>altilis</i> with <i>S</i>. <i>murinoflavus</i> by Allen (1939) was not justified. Later, Vallo <i>et al</i>. (2013) discussed the possible link of <i>S</i>. <i>altilis</i> to a newly discovered and yet undescribed small-sized <i>Scotophilus</i> species from West Africa (<i>S</i>. aff. <i>nigritellus</i>). However, these two morphologically delimited allopatric forms clearly represent independent evolutionary units as shown in the molecular genetic analysis. For the above mentioned reasons, we suggest the resurrection of the long neglected taxon name <i>S</i>. <i>altilis</i> for the respective populations of East African <i>Scotophilus</i> cf. <i>leucogaster</i>.</p> <p> According to the available evidence, the newly resurrected <i>S. altilis</i> represents a small-sized representative of the genus, occurring in ca. 1400 km long belt of rather low elevation areas of the Nile basin (Fig. 2). This belt could be demarcated by the Blue Nile regions in southeastern Sudan and northwestern Ethiopia in the north, the area of most abundant records from five localities in an area of ca. 150× 100 km, and the eastern banks of Lake Victoria in southwestern Kenya. Its southern distribution may extend westwards to northeastern DR Congo, as assumed from earlier comparison of the Faradje specimens to the paratype specimen from Bados by Allen <i>et al</i>. (1917). In this range, <i>S. altilis</i> occurs in broad sympatry with <i>S. leucogaster</i> (e.g. Kruskop <i>et al</i>. 2016), from which the former could be distinguished by slightly smaller size, but mainly by the conspicuous greyish-brown coloration of the belly (Fig. 1). It also occurs in sympatry or close parapatry with <i>S. colias</i> (sensu Vallo <i>et al.</i> 2011; unpubl. records), which, however, markedly differs by its bright pelage coloration, the yellow belly and reddish-brown back.</p>Published as part of <i>Vallo, Peter, Reeder, Deeann M., Vodzak, Megan E. & Benda, Petr, 2019, Resurrection of an East African house bat species Scotophilus altilis Allen, 1914 (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae), pp. 148-160 in Zootaxa 4577 (1)</i> on pages 157-158, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4577.1.9, <a href="http://zenodo.org/record/3993528">http://zenodo.org/record/3993528</a&gt

Host, Pathogen, and Environmental Characteristics Predict White-Nose Syndrome Mortality in Captive Little Brown Myotis (Myotis lucifugus)

An estimated 5.7 million or more bats died in North America between 2006 and 2012 due to infection with the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd) that causes white-nose syndrome (WNS) during hibernation. The behavioral and physiological changes associated with hibernation leave bats vulnerable to WNS, but the persistence of bats within the contaminated regions of North America suggests that survival might vary predictably among individuals or in relation to environmental conditions. To investigate variables influencing WNS mortality, we conducted a captive study of 147 little brown myotis (Myotis lucifugus) inoculated with 0, 500, 5 000, 50 000, or 500 000 Pd conidia and hibernated for five months at either 4 or 10°C. We found that female bats were significantly more likely to survive hibernation, as were bats hibernated at 4°C, and bats with greater body condition at the start of hibernation. Although all bats inoculated with Pd exhibited shorter torpor bouts compared to controls, a characteristic of WNS, only bats inoculated with 500 conidia had significantly lower survival odds compared to controls. These data show that host and environmental characteristics are significant predictors of WNS mortality, and that exposure to up to 500 conidia is sufficient to cause a fatal infection. These results also illustrate a need to quantify dynamics of Pd exposure in free-ranging bats, as dynamics of WNS produced in captive studies inoculating bats with several hundred thousand conidia may differ from those in the wild