SARS-like Coronaviruses in Horseshoe Bats ( spp.) in Russia, 2020.

We found and genetically described two novel SARS-like coronaviruses in feces and oral swabs of the greater () and the lesser () horseshoe bats in southern regions of Russia. The viruses, named Khosta-1 and Khosta-2, together with related viruses from Bulgaria and Kenya, form a separate phylogenetic lineage. We found evidence of recombination events in the evolutionary history of Khosta-1, which involved the acquisition of the structural proteins S, E, and M, as well as the nonstructural genes ORF3, ORF6, ORF7a, and ORF7b, from a virus that is related to the Kenyan isolate BtKY72.

[Bats of the subtropical climate zone of the Krasnodar Territory of Russia as a possible reservoir of zoonotic viral infections].

Emerging and reemerging infections pose a grave global health threat. The emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the resulting COVID-19 pandemic have demonstrated the importance of studying of zoonotic viruses directly in natural foci. For SARS-like coronaviruses, as well as for many other zoonotic pathogens (including hemorrhagic fevers and rabies agents), the main reservoir are horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus spp.