Diversity of parvoviruses in bats from China and their evolutionary implications

Parvoviridae is an important family of viruses associated with a spectrum of diseases in different mammals. Five of eight genera of its subfamily, Parvovirinae, consist of parvoviruses with clinical significance to humans. The origins and emergence of these parvoviruses are not clearly understood. Bats, on the other hand, have increasingly been recognized as important zoonotic virus reservoirs, however, not many parvoviruses are known from bats. To understand the role of bats in parvovirus evolution and transmission, samples of bats from Hong Kong and six Chinese provinces were first tested for the presence of parvoviruses using PCR. In total, 216 partial helicase-coding DNA fragments of parvoviruses were detected from bats of five different families. These fragments, as well as two additional parvoviruses detected during genome sequencing consisted of 28 potentially novel, and two known bat parvovirus species belonging to four parvovirus genera: Amdoparvovirus, Bocaparvovirus, Copiparvovirus and Dependoparvovirus. One of the 28 potentially novel parvoviruses, Rhinolophus sinicus bat bocavirus (Rs-BtBoV), detected in bats from three different geographical regions, was further characterized. PCR specifically targeting Rs-BtBoVs detected related strains from 66 bats of six species. Rhinolophus sinicus bats had much higher detection rates than other species, suggesting their role as reservoir hosts. Among R. sinicus bats, higher Rs-BtBoV detection rates were observed in juveniles, and adult females than in adult males (P<0.05). Among adult females, Rs-BtBoV displayed a high propensity to infect lactating females (P<0.0001), with detection rate peaking during R. sinicus bats’ lactating season, and associated with lower body weight (P