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In October 1978, a new virus named Fomédé was recovered from the bat, Nycteris nana, during the studies of arbovirus infections in Guinea (West Africa). When the virus was tested, it did not fit any prototype patterns. These findings have led to a presumption that the ch. s. 654 strain of virus is a previously unknown virus due to its biological, physico-chemical and antigenic patterns.

Eight viral isolates were recovered from Eidolon helvum bats collected in Nigeria and Cameroon in 1971 and from the Central African Republic in 1974. Subsequent studies showed that the agents from the three countries were similar and were strains of a new virus of the Orbivirus genus, family Reoviridae. This new virus was characterized with respect to its sensitivity to lipid solvents and to pH, its relative size and morphology by electron microscopy, its effect on mice experimentally infected by various routes, the histopathology found in infected mice, and its antigenic relationship or lack of a relationship to other known orbiviruses.

The second reported isolate of Lagos-bat virus has been obtained from bats Micropterus pusillus caught in 1974 in the Central African Empire, thus extending the geographic area of this virus and adding another species of vertebrate host among its reservoirs.

This bacterial, viral and parasitical study of the insect eater bats Chaerophon pumila allowed to isolate, from stools of 88 of them, 115 bacterial strains to Enterobacteriaceae family: some of them were identified as very atypical, rare or potentially pathogenic for man. From salivary glands, brain and blood, 13 viral strains were also isolated: 8 of them were less identified as Dakar-bat virus. Any parasite was observed.

From stools of 88 malagasy insect eater bats Chaerephon pumila, a large amount of bacterial strains were isolated. Twenty different species were recognized, most of them belonged to Enterobacteriaceae family. Eight strains were identified as Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica O48: -; 1.5, despite many atypical characters. Strains of Salmonella enteritidis, Koserella trabulsii, Kluyvera sp., ODC negative Serratia marcescens, atypical Hafnia alvei... were also identified.

The authors make a review of literature on viruses isolated from chiroptera's tissues. They study especially two of these viruses: a true arbovirus, the Japanese B encephalitis virus and a virus of the same genus but not arthropod-borne, the Rio Bravo virus. They consider successively for each virus: isolations from bats, serosurveys in bat and in man, and experimental studies with these viruses, allowing to estimate the role of chiroptera in the diffusion and the maintenance of some arboviruses. They also report some personal results of serosurveys in bats from Tunisia and Spain.

Virological investigations of bats performed in the territory of Republic of Guinea permitted for the first time to isolate from the bats Micropteropus pusillus and Hipposideros abae two strains which were identified as R. V. F. V. Serological investigation revealed specific antibodies to R. V. F. V. among natives in 3.3% and among domestic animals in 6.8%. It is supposed that bats are reservoir of this virus. They can transmit agent of R. V. F. by means of mosquitoes or by being part of the native diet.