Mitigating bat viruses: from forecasting spillover to control at the source

Bats are a notorious source of new viral threats, responsible for Ebola, SARS and Nipah. Being able to anticipate and prevent the next outbreak would dramatically improve human health and prosperity. However, bats are notoriously difficult to study and blindly-implemented interventions can backfire. This fellowship will use a uniquely tractable and economically important study system, vampire bat rabies in Latin America, to develop a methodological toolbox for managing bat viruses. Routinely collected data from health systems will feed models that forecast risk in real time, enabling live-saving vaccination of humans and livestock before outbreaks begin. Field studies, viral genome sequencing, experiments, and computer simulations will explore whether new immunization paradigms using self-spreading vaccines could protect human health by combating viruses from within wild bat populations. Results will bring a future of vampire bat rabies eradication into sight and establish a model to manage bat viruses of global concern.