About "Viruses hosted by bats"

 

　Profile #40: Dr. KAJIHARA Masahiro, Associate Professor

　Division of International Research Promotion,

　International Institute for Zoonosis Control

 

　【Research Topics】

　・Research on viruses hosted by bats

　

 

 

 

  ～Virus hunt in bats in Africa～ 

 

　Following the proverb, "Those who drink the water of Africa will return to Africa," after my first visit to Zambia as a university student, I began a journey that has led me to conduct research in Africa for over ten years, including approximately five years based in Zambia. My primary research focus is discovering viruses carried by bats and elucidating their characteristics and ecology. In Zambia, our team confirmed the presence of the Marburg virus, which causes lethal hemorrhagic fever in humans. Surprisingly, this virus resembled the viruses found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, which are 2,000 km away. However, the ecology of the virus—such as when, how, and from where it arrived in Zambia—remains unsolved.

 

　Viruses infect living cells and utilize their systems to replicate. Thus, understanding the ecology of the hosts is essential to understanding the viruses' ecology. Currently, I am most passionate about biologging studies, in which we release bats equipped with small GPS data loggers into the night sky of Zambia and track their movements via satellites. Our tracking results have successfully captured bats intruding into neighboring countries and densely populated capital areas, revealing that bats travel over a much wider range than previously imagined. In the future, I plan to analyze the risks of virus transmission associated with bat movements. My aim is to conduct research that protects humans and animals from infectious diseases, contributing to their health and happiness. In this context, I believe that understanding the ecology of viruses is essential.

 

Bat capturing at night with personal protective equipment.

 

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, many bats were caught!

 

A bat equipped with a GPS data logger.