viruses Article Characterizing and Evaluating the Zoonotic Potential of Novel Viruses Discovered in Vampire Bats Laura M. Bergner 1,2,* , Nardus Mollentze 1,2 , Richard J. Orton 2 , Carlos Tello 3,4, Alice Broos 2, Roman Biek 1 and Daniel G. Streicker 1,2 1 Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK;
[email protected] (N.M.);
[email protected] (R.B.);
[email protected] (D.G.S.) 2 MRC–University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, Glasgow G61 1QH, UK;
[email protected] (R.J.O.);
[email protected] (A.B.) 3 Association for the Conservation and Development of Natural Resources, Lima 15037, Peru;
[email protected] 4 Yunkawasi, Lima 15049, Peru * Correspondence:
[email protected] Abstract: The contemporary surge in metagenomic sequencing has transformed knowledge of viral diversity in wildlife. However, evaluating which newly discovered viruses pose sufficient risk of infecting humans to merit detailed laboratory characterization and surveillance remains largely speculative. Machine learning algorithms have been developed to address this imbalance by ranking the relative likelihood of human infection based on viral genome sequences, but are not yet routinely Citation: Bergner, L.M.; Mollentze, applied to viruses at the time of their discovery. Here, we characterized viral genomes detected N.; Orton, R.J.; Tello, C.; Broos, A.; through metagenomic sequencing of feces and saliva from common vampire bats (Desmodus rotundus) Biek, R.; Streicker, D.G. and used these data as a case study in evaluating zoonotic potential using molecular sequencing Characterizing and Evaluating the data.