ABOVE: A scientist holds a wrinkle-lipped bat belonging to the Chaerephon genus in Myanmar.
ROSHAN PATEL/ SMITHSONIAN CONSERVATION BIOLOGY INSTITUTE
Scientists have described a newly identified virus present in bats from Myanmar in addition to another virus, previously found in Thailand. Both viruses were found in saliva and fecal samples collected from 150 insectivorous bats of the Chaerephon genus.
“This is the first step to understanding what kind of viruses are present in Myanmar’s wildlife populations and lays groundwork for additional work to understand their potential risk to humans and other animals,” Marc Valitutto, a wildlife veterinarian at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute who was involved in this research, says in a statement.
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