A meta-analysis exploring associations between habitat degradation and Neotropical bat virus prevalence and seroprevalence

Habitat degradation can increase zoonotic disease risks by altering infection dynamics in wildlife and increasing wildlife–human interactions. Bats are an important taxonomic group to consider these effects, because they harbour many relevant zoonotic viruses and have species- and context-dependent responses to degradation that could affect zoonotic virus dynamics. Yet our understanding of the associations between habitat degradation and bat virus prevalence and seroprevalence are limited to a small number of studies, which often differ in the bats or viruses sampled, the study region, and methodology. To develop a broad understanding of the associations between bat viruses and habitat degradation, we conducted an initial phylogenetic meta-analysis that combines published prevalence and seroprevalence (“(sero)prevalence”) with remote-sensing habitat degradation data. Our dataset includes 588 unique records of (sero)prevalence across 16 studies, 64 bat species, and five virus families. W..., , , # A meta-analysis exploring associations between habitat degradation and Neotropical bat virus prevalence and seroprevalence

Authors:
Alexis Heckley (corresponding): Redpath Museum and Biology Department, McGill University
ORCID:000-0002-5644-3535
()
Lauren Lock: Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman
ORCID: 0009-0003-1731-1235
()
Daniel Becker: Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman
ORCID: 0000-0003-4315-8628
()

Description of study:
We conducted a phylogenetic meta-analysis to investigate how habitat degradation affects the prevalence and seroprevalence of Neotropical bat viruses. We looked at habitat degradation overall and tested how the relationships between habitat degradation and bat virus prevalence and seroprevalence are moderated by the time between degradation and bat sampling. We finally tested how this relationship is moderated by ecological traits of bat hosts (maximum colony size, roost duration, diet, wing aspect ratio, echolocation traits...