Robust evidence for bats as reservoir hosts is lacking in most African virus studies: a review and call to optimize sampling and conserve bats.

Africa experiences frequent emerging disease outbreaks among humans, with bats often proposed as zoonotic pathogen hosts. We comprehensively reviewed virus-bat findings from papers published between 1978 and 2020 to evaluate the evidence that African bats are reservoir and/or bridging hosts for viruses that cause human disease. We present data from 162 papers (of 1322) with original findings on (1) numbers and species of bats sampled across bat families and the continent, (2) how bats were selected for study inclusion, (3) if bats were terminally sampled, (4) what types of ecological data, if any, were recorded and (5) which viruses were detected and with what methodology.

Epauletted fruit bats display exceptionally high infections with a Hepatocystis species complex in South Sudan.

Hepatocystis parasites are closely related to mammalian Plasmodium species, the causative agents of malaria. Despite the close phylogenetic relationship, Hepatocystis parasites lack the intermittent erythrocytic replication cycles, the signature and exclusive cause of malaria-related morbidity and mortality. Hepatocystis population expansion in the mammalian host is thought to be restricted to the pre-erythrocytic liver phase.

Molecular Detection of Candidatus Bartonella mayotimonensis in North American Bats.

Candidatus Bartonella mayotimonensis was detected in 2010 from an aortic valve sample of a patient with endocarditis from Iowa, the United States of America. The environmental source of the potentially new endocarditis-causing Bartonella remained elusive. We set out to study the prevalence and diversity of bat-associated Bartonella in North America.

A new genus for a rare African vespertilionid bat: insights from South Sudan.

A new genus is proposed for the strikingly patterned African vespertilionid "Glauconycteris" superba Hayman, 1939 on the basis of cranial and external morphological comparisons. A review of the attributes of a newly collected specimen from South Sudan (a new country record) and other museum specimens of "Glauconycteris" superba suggests that "Glauconycteris" superba is markedly distinct ecomorphologically from other species classified in Glauconycteris and is likely the sister taxon to Glauconycteris sensu stricto. The recent capture of this rarely collected but widespread bat highlights the need for continued research in tropical sub-Saharan Africa and in particular, for more work in western South Sudan, which has received very little scientific attention.