Diet composition affects bat viral shedding with potential consequences for pathogen spillover

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Virology
• Immunology

Background:

• Dietary changes in hosts can influence infection control and pathogen spillover risk.
• Dietary shifts are hypothesized to drive zoonotic virus spillover from bats to humans.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how diet composition affects immune response, viral shedding, and spillover risk in bats.
• To model the interplay between diet, immunity, and influenza virus shedding in Jamaican fruit bats.

Main Methods:

• Developed a mechanistic model fitted to experimental data from Jamaican fruit bats infected with influenza A virus (H18N11).
• Assessed viral shedding and immune responses under different dietary conditions (suboptimal fat, suboptimal sugar, optimal protein).

Main Results:

• Diet composition significantly altered immune and metabolic parameters influencing viral shedding control.
• Bats on a suboptimal fat diet exhibited more successful control of viral shedding compared to other diets.
• Bats on an optimal protein diet showed potentially lower spillover hazard due to reduced feeding activity.

Conclusions:

• Dietary factors, including citrulline and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF), are key in regulating viral shedding in reservoir hosts.
• The balance between viral shedding control and host feeding behavior influences zoonotic spillover risk.