We provide the first evidence of Hepatozoon parasites infecting bats. We sequenced a short fragment of the 18S rRNA gene (~600 base pairs) of Hepatozoon parasites from 3 Hipposideros cervinus bats from Borneo. Phylogenies inferred by model-based methods place these Hepatozoon within a clade formed by parasites of reptiles, rodents, and marsupials. We discuss the scenario that bats might be comm...

Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) represent past retroviral infections and accordingly can provide an ideal framework to infer virus-host interaction over their evolutionary history. In this study, we target high quality Pol sequences from 7,994 Class I and 8,119 Class II ERVs from 69 mammalian genomes and surprisingly find that retroviruses harbored by bats and rodents combined occupy the major p...

The mammalian and flea fauna of La Rioja Province is one of the least known from northwestern Argentina. In this study, the distribution and nomenclature of 13 species of fleas of bats and rodents from La Rioja Province are updated. Four species of fleas are recorded for the first time in La Rioja Province including a new record for northwestern Argentina, and two new flea-host associations. An...

Leptospirosis is a neglected emerging infectious disease with high burden in Africa. Major reservoirs of leptospirosis are rodents and other small mammals. Studies of leptospirosis in bats and the extent to which they contribute to its transmission to humans and domestic animals in Tanzania are lacking. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of leptospirosis and local Lepto...

BACKGROUND Emerging bacterial zoonoses in bats and rodents remain relatively understudied. We conduct the first comparative host-pathogen coevolutionary analyses of bacterial pathogens in these hosts, using Bartonella spp. and Leptospira spp. as a model. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We used published genetic data for 51 Bartonella genotypes from 24 bat species, 129 Bartonella from 38 rodent...

Four bats and three rodents species were reported from Farasan Island. Triaenops persicus Dobson, 1871 is for the first time Saudi Arabia based on echolocation calls. The presence of Pipistrellus kuhlii (Kuhl, 1817), Asellia patrizii De Beaux, 1931, Rattus rattus (Linnaeus, 1758), Gerbillus nanus Blanford, 1875 are confirmed.