Proportion of human viruses across taxonomic orders

Viruses harbored by bats and rodents, which are widely considered to be high-risk reservoirs, are no more likely to infect humans than viruses carried by other hosts, a study suggests. The propensity of a virus to spread to humans is thought to vary across nonhuman animal groups that act as reservoir hosts. However, the notion that certain animal groups disproportionately maintain and transmit viruses to humans is debated. To test this idea, Nardus Mollentze and Daniel Streicker conducted literature searches to construct a large dataset of 415 species of RNA and DNA viruses from 30 viral families that have infected three avian and eight mammalian orders. The authors found that the proportion of viruses that infect humans does not vary substantially across taxonomic orders. Compared with orders that consist of few animal species, species-rich orders harbor more human-infecting viruses, but this number scales proportionately with the total number of viruses. The findings suggest that certain features of virus biology, rather than physiological or ecological traits associated with reservoir hosts, are responsible for viral transmission to humans. The current practice of focusing virus discovery, research, and surveillance efforts on host reservoirs thought to pose a high risk should be broadened to be proportionate with local biodiversity, according to the authors.

Article #19-19176: "Viral zoonotic risk is homogenous among taxonomic orders of mammalian and avian reservoir hosts," by Nardus Mollentze and Daniel Streicker.

MEDIA CONTACTS: Nardus Mollentze, MRC University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, Glasgow, UNITED KINGDOM; tel: +44 (0)141 330 4019; e-mail: nardus.mollentze@glasgow.ac.uk; Daniel Streicker, MRC University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, Glasgow, UNITED KINGDOM; e-mail: daniel.streicker@glasgow.ac.uk

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