Review Article Open Access

COVID-19 Pandemic: Bat to Human?

Abstract

Background: The human novel coronavirus disease-2019 is a highly transmittable and pathogenic viral infection caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoVs-2), which emerged in Wuhan, Hubei province, China in December 2019 and was named by the World Health Organization as COVID-19. Bats are known for their reservoirs of large number of zoonotic diseases, including coronaviruses (CoVs) that have caused disease outbreaks in human and livestock populations. Aim: In this literature review efforts have been made to identify the potential intermediate and the exact transmission route from bat to human. Methods: The related data on COVID-19 and bat were retrieved from electronic databases PubMed, Science Direct.Com and Google Scholar. Sources: The Genome sequence of SARS-CoVs-2 shares a high level of genetic similarity (96.3%) with the bat coronavirus RaTG13 and genetically more distinct from SARS-CoVs (with 79% sequence identity) and MERS-CoVs (with 50% sequence identity). Pangolin- CoVs is 91.02% and 90.55% identical to SARS-CoVs-2 and Bat CoVs RaTG13, respectively, at the whole genome level. Bat could be the key reservoir and pangolin could be the intermediate host for COVID-19. Environmental changes, Migration, Climate change, Human population growth, Deforestation and also Accidental process may be the reason for transmission of CoVs from bat to human. Conclusion: The present review has highlighted that emergence of new zoonotic source of SARS-CoVs-2 is not confirmed, however, the sequence-based analysis suggests that bats are the key reservoir. Suganya M and Manimegalai K*

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