Novel Insights Into Immune Systems of Bats

In recent years, viruses similar to those that cause serious disease in humans and other mammals have been detected in healthy bats. These include filoviruses, paramyxoviruses and coronaviruses that cause severe diseases such as Ebola virus disease, Marburg haemorrhagic fever and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in humans. The evolution of flight in bats seem to have selected for a unique set of antiviral immune responses that control...