Webala, P. W. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2026

Bartonella and hemotropic Mycoplasma species in synanthropic bats in Kenya

Identifying and characterizing zoonotic pathogens in wildlife is essential for understanding disease risk to humans. In Sub-Saharan Africa, many people live with bats in their houses and are exposed to their pathogens, yet little is known about the bacterial pathogens in Afrotropical bat species. Globally, Bartonella spp. (bartonellae) and hemotropic Mycoplasma spp. (hemoplasmas) are common bacterial pathogens in bats, and some lineages are known to spill over and cause infections in humans. To evaluate this disease risk, we screened three common synanthropic bat species in Kenya, and their ectoparasites, for hemoplasmas and bartonellae and assessed their relatedness to known human pathogens. Of 767 bats across 21 sites, 17.9% of bats were Bartonella spp. positive and 19.3% were hemoplasma positive. Bat ectoparasites had similar Bartonella prevalence (13.5-25.0%) and, for most bat species, ectoparasite loads were not associated with increased likelihood of Bartonella infection. We found that Bartonella lineages displayed phylogenetic overlap between different bat species and ectoparasites, suggesting pathogen sharing between species, while hemoplasma lineages corresponded strictly to host taxonomy. Finally, we found that 16S rRNA sequences from one heart-nosed bat (Cardioderma cor) were 97.85% similar to a human-associated hemoplasma found previously in Schreibers bats (Miniopterus schreibersii) in Spain. We show that synanthropic bats host bacteria of potential public health concern, highlighting the need to investigate the emerging impacts of these pathogens on human health in Kenya and elsewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2018

Associations between Afrotropical bats, parasites, and microbial symbionts

Bats are among the most diverse animals on the planet and harbor numerous bacterial, viral, and eukaryotic symbionts. The interplay between bacterial community composition and parasitism in bats is not well understood and may have important implications for studies of similar systems. Here we present a comprehensive survey of dipteran and haemosporidian parasites, and characterize the gut, oral, and skin microbiota of Afrotropical bats. We identify significant correlations between bacterial community composition of the skin and dipteran ectoparasite prevalence across four major bat lineages, as well as links between the oral microbiome and malarial parasitism, suggesting a potential mechanism for host selection and vector-borne disease transmission in bats. In contrast to recent studies of host-microbe phylosymbiosis in mammals, we find no correlation between chiropteran phylogenetic distances and bacterial community dissimilarity across the three anatomical sites, suggesting that host environment is more important than shared ancestry in shaping the composition of bat-associated bacterial communities.\n\nSIGNIFICANCEAnimals rely on bacterial symbionts for numerous biological functions, such as digestion and immune system development. Increasing evidence suggests that host-associated microbes may play a role in mediating parasite burden. This study is the first to provide a comprehensive survey of bacterial symbionts from multiple anatomical sites across a broad taxonomic range of Afrotropical bats, demonstrating significant associations between the bat microbiome and parasite prevalence. This study provides a framework for future approaches to systems biology of host-symbiont interactions across broad taxonomic scales, emphasizing the interdependence between microbial symbionts and vertebrate health in the study of wild organisms and their natural history.

ecology↗