Could Some Mammals be a Host to 320,000 Unknown Viruses?

A recent study shows that many viruses could be circulating in mammals.

According to researchers from the United States and Bangladesh, they worked to identify an estimated 320,000 newly discovered viruses currently existing in mammals. The team actually believes that the proper identification of all of them could help benefit future research that could potentially prevent pandemics from occurring in places throughout the globe.

"What we're really talking about is defining the full range of diversity of viruses within mammals, and our intent is that as we get more information we will be able to understand the principles that underlie determinants of risks," professor Ian Lipkin, the director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at the University of Columbia said, via BBC News. "Despite what looks like an extraordinary expense to pursue this kind of work, it really pales in comparison with what one might learn that could lead to very rapid recognition and intervention that could come to the fore with a pandemic risk. The idea is to develop an early warning system."

For the study, researchers from CII and EcoHealth Alliance analyzed 1,897 biological samples from bats in Bangladesh. For instance, they looked at the flying fox--a type of bat that's ound in the area and is typically home to several disease causing Nipah viruses that are commonly characterized by inflammation of the brain (encephalitis) or respiratory disease, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

In the lab, the researchers found 55 viruses of which only five were previously known. Statistical methods were then used to help extrapolate figures of all 5,486 known mammals, concluding indeed that there  might be approximately 320,000 viruses in all of the animals.

"For decades, we've faced the threat of future pandemics without knowing how many viruses are lurking in the environment, in wildlife, waiting to emerge. Finally we have a breakthrough-there aren't millions of unknown virus, just a few hundred thousand, and given the technology we have it's possible that in my lifetime, we'll know the identity of every unknown virus on the planet," said Peter Daszak, PhD, corresponding author and president of EcoHealth Alliance, according to a news release.

More information regarding the study can be found via the study "A strategy to estimate unknown viral diversity in mammals,"which is published in the journal mBio.