Abstract
Characterizing host traits that influence viral richness and diversification is important for understanding wildlife pathogens affecting conservation and/or human health. Behaviors that affect contact rates among hosts could be important for viral diversification because more frequent intra- and inter-specific contacts among hosts should increase the potential for viral diversification within host populations. We used published data on bats to test the contact-rate hypothesis. We predicted that species forming large conspecific groups, that share their range with more heterospecifics (i.e., sympatry), and with mating systems characterized by high contact rates (polygynandry: multi-male/multi-female), would host higher viral richness than species with small group sizes, lower sympatry, or low contact-rate mating systems (polygyny: single male/multi-female). Consistent with our hypothesis and previous research, viral richness was positively correlated with conspecific group size although the relationship plateaued at group sizes of approximately several hundred thousand bats. This pattern supports epidemiological theory that, up to a point, larger groups have higher contact rates, greater likelihood of acquiring and transmitting viruses, and ultimately greater potential for viral diversification. However, contrary to our hypothesis, there was no effect of sympatry on viral richness and no difference in viral richness between mating systems. We also found no residual effect of host phylogeny on viral richness, suggesting that closely related species do not necessarily host similar numbers of viruses. Our results support the contact-rate hypothesis that intra-specific viral transmission can enhance viral diversification within species and highlight the influence of host group size on the potential of viruses to propagate within host populations.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Kevin Olival, two anonymous reviewers, and members of The University of Winnipeg Bat Lab for outstanding comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript. Funding was provided to CKRW from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC, Canada), an NSERC Post-Doctoral Fellowship to QEF and a Manitoba Graduate Scholarship to QMRW.
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10393_2017_1276_MOESM1_ESM.png
Supplementary Figure S1. Summary of the group size for each bat species (n = 51) in our database. Note that data were log-transformed for ease of interpretation although y-axis shows corresponding untransformed values. (PNG 446 kb)
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Supplementary Figure S2. Summary of the total number of publications for each bat species (n = 51) in our database. Note the majority of research (right side of figure) has been conducted on temperate bats while less research (left side of figure) has been conducted on tropical bats. (PNG 483 kb)
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Webber, Q.M.R., Fletcher, Q.E. & Willis, C.K.R. Viral Richness is Positively Related to Group Size, but Not Mating System, in Bats. EcoHealth 14, 652–661 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-017-1276-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-017-1276-3