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  • NEWS FEATURE

Bats live with dozens of nasty viruses — can studying them help stop pandemics?

Researchers are examining the weird immune systems of bats, hoping to help prevent the next outbreak.
  1. Smriti Mallapaty
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Close-up of an Eastern horseshoe bat colony flying out from an abandoned mine at night

A colony of eastern horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus megaphyllus) in a mine in Australia. Horseshoe bats can harbour coronaviruses. Credit: Bruce Thomson/Nature Picture Library

Randy Foo fills a pipette with orange juice from a bottle clearly labelled ‘For Bats ONLY’. He and his colleague Rommel Yroy are seated at a biological safety cabinet, wrapped in blue gowns and wearing face shields, gloves, scrub pants and shoe covers. Peeping out of Yroy’s clasped hands are two round, glossy black eyes, two slight, pointy ears and the furry snout of a young, male cave nectar bat (Eonycteris spelaea). It is wriggling and squealing, occasionally protruding its long, pink tongue to lick driblets of the sweet drink. This is a little treat for enduring a transfer in a blue cotton bag from its cage to the laboratory, followed by a quick weigh-in and inspection for injuries along its stretched-out wings and dense, fur coat. “The younger guys are generally a little bit more feisty,” says Foo.

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Nature 615, 576-579 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00791-x

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