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Scientists have found two new bat viruses that are very similar to the deadly Nipah and Hendra viruses, which can cause inflammation of the brain and respiratory diseases in people. This week, Yun Feng of the Yunnan Institute of Endemic Disease Control and Prevention, China, and colleagues described the viruses and other bat kidney viruses, bacteria, and parasites in PLOS Pathogens.
Many pathogens have been transferred to humans from bats. The variety of bat viruses, fungi, bacteria, and parasites has not been fully examined. Most bat studies focused on feces, not organs.
This study examined the kidneys of 142 bats from ten species collected over four years in five Yunnan province, China. Using advanced genetic sequencing, the team detected 20 new viruses.
In particular, new henipaviruses, the same genus as Nipah and Hendra viruses, which can kill humans, were alarming. Fruit bats in people’s villages, near orchards, had henipaviruses. Henipaviruses can spread through urine, thus contaminated fruit could infect humans or livestock, according to the study.
The study also found two highly abundant bacterial species, namely Flavobacterium yunnanensis, and a novel protozoan parasite, Klossiella yunnanensis.
These findings improve our understanding of the bat kidney infectome, highlight significant zoonotic dangers and emphasize the necessity for extensive, full-spectrum microbial investigations of understudied organs to determine bat spillover risks.
The researchers discovered the diverse microbes that bats carry and the first full-length genomes of new bat-borne henipaviruses that are similar to Hendra and Nipah viruses found in China by analyzing the infectome of bat kidneys from village orchards and caves in Yunnan. These viruses could spread to humans or livestock.
Sources:
Kuang G, Yang T, Yang W, Wang J, Pan H, Pan Y, et al. (2025) Infectome analysis of bat kidneys from Yunnan province, China, reveals novel henipaviruses related to Hendra and Nipah viruses and prevalent bacterial and eukaryotic microbes. PLoS Pathog 21(6): e1013235. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1013235
New viruses discovered in bats in China could be the next pandemic threat. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/06/250625075020.htm
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