Bat trait, genetic and pathogen data from large-scale investigations of African fruit bats, Eidolon helvum.
2016
Peel, Alison J | Baker, Kate S | Hayman, David TS | Suu-Ire, Richard | Breed, Andrew C | Gembu, Guy-Crispin | Lembo, Tiziana | Fernández-Loras, Andrés | Sargan, David R | Fooks, Anthony R | Cunningham, Andrew A | Wood, James LN
Bats, including African straw-coloured fruit bats (Eidolon helvum), have been highlighted as reservoirs of many recently emerged zoonotic viruses. This common, widespread and ecologically important species was the focus of longitudinal and continent-wide studies of the epidemiological and ecology of Lagos bat virus, henipaviruses and Achimota viruses. Here we present a spatial, morphological, demographic, genetic and serological dataset encompassing 2827 bats from nine countries over an 8-year period. Genetic data comprises cytochrome b mitochondrial sequences (n=608) and microsatellite genotypes from 18 loci (n=544). Tooth-cementum analyses (n=316) allowed derivation of rare age-specific serologic data for a lyssavirus, a henipavirus and two rubulaviruses. This dataset contributes a substantial volume of data on the ecology of E. helvum and its viruses and will be valuable for a wide range of studies, including viral transmission dynamic modelling in age-structured populations, investigation of seasonal reproductive asynchrony in wide-ranging species, ecological niche modelling, inference of island colonisation history, exploration of relationships between island and body size, and various spatial analyses of demographic, morphometric or serological data.
Show more [+] Less [-]This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2016.49
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