Paramyxoviruses in Old World fruit bats (Pteropodidae): an open database and synthesis of sampling effort, viral positivity, and coevolution

Abstract Over the past 25 years, research interest in the links between Old World fruit bats (family Pteropodidae) and paramyxoviruses has driven a rapid proliferation of surveillance studies in this system. We performed a systematic review and data synthesis of all published paramyxovirus studies of wild pteropodids. Here, we present an open, static, PRISMA-compliant database called pteroparamyxo, which includes 1,482 records of prevalence or seroprevalence from 119 studies published between 1971 and 2023. Using this dataset, we examined biases in sampling effort, predictors of viral positivity, tissue tropism, and pteropodid–paramyxovirus coevolution. We found significant spatial and taxonomic bias in sampling effort, largely driven by overrepresentation of Pteropus–henipavirus systems; in particular, African bats were undersampled for paramyxoviruses relative to Asian and Oceanian taxa. On the viral side, henipaviruses (specifically Hendra, Nipah, and Cedar viruses) were overrepresented relative to pararubulaviruses. We also identified substantial non-random variability in paramyxovirus prevalence and seroprevalence. Spleens and pooled fecal samples from pteropodids yielded the highest PCR positivity, while samples from Oceania tended to have slightly higher seroprevalence than those from Asia and Africa. Collection year was not a significant predictor of positivity, suggesting limited overall change in paramyxovirus PCR prevalence or seroprevalence over the last several decades. Finally, we found weak evidence of pteropodid–paramyxovirus coevolution, supporting relatively frequent host-switching within this system. Our study highlights critical sampling gaps to address in future surveillance studies and provides preliminary evidence for sample and tissue types to prioritize in field- and museum-based sampling. Author Summary Paramyxoviruses are a family of viruses that include the human measles and mumps viruses as well as emerging zoonoses like Hendra and Nipah henipaviruses. These henipaviruses spill over from wild fruit bats to domestic animals and humans in Australia and Asia, causing high fatality rates with no known human treatments or vaccines. The occurrence and prevalence of paramyxoviruses across the entire fruit bat family (Pteropodidae) has never been formally investigated, as published detection attempts have not yet been consolidated into a database. We conducted a systematic review of the existing literature on pteropodid–paramyxovirus sampling efforts and compiled an open database for researchers to reference and use. We then leveraged this novel database for a suite of analyses and demonstrated that Australian and Asian fruit bats are disproportionately sampled for paramyxoviruses while African species are understudied, despite the fact that African samples have slightly higher rates of paramyxovirus detection. We identified sample types that may be particularly likely to yield viral detections, a finding which can help guide future survey efforts using field studies as well as museum collections. We also demonstrate that paramyxoviruses appear liable to switch host species within Pteropodidae, challenging earlier hypotheses that these viruses are host specific. Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Footnotes Note: This study involves no new data collection or live participants and therefore does not require an Ethics Statement. Supplemental files (database and supplementary tables and figures) added.