Feng Zhu, Veasna Duong, Xiao Fang Lim, Vibol Hul, Tanu Chawla, Lucy Keatts, Tracey Goldstein, Alexandre Hassanin, Vuong Tan Tu, Philippe Buchy, October M. Sessions, Lin-Fa Wang, Philippe Dussart, Danielle E. Anderson, Duke-NUS Medical School [Singapore], Institut Pasteur du Cambodge, Réseau International des Instituts Pasteur (RIIP), Unité des Virus Emergents (UVE), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), University of California [Davis] (UC Davis), University of California (UC), Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité (ISYEB ), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université des Antilles (UA), Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST), University of Melbourne, and DEA and L-FW were supported by Grants NRF2012NRFCRP001-056 and NRF2016NRF-NSFC002-013 from the Singapore National Research Foundation. This study was made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Emerging Pandemic Threats PREDICT project (cooperative agreement number GHN-A-OO-09-00010-00 and AID-OAA-A-14-00102). The contents of this paper are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the US Agency for International Development or the US Government. The fieldwork was supported in part by the National Authority for Preah Vihear, UNESCO, 'Société des amis du Muséum et du Jardin des Plantes', and the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle.
International audience; Bats have been recognized as an exceptional viral reservoir, especially for coronaviruses. At least three bat zoonotic coronaviruses (SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2) have been shown to cause severe diseases in humans and it is expected more will emerge. One of the major features of CoVs is that they are all highly prone to recombination. An extreme example is the insertion of the P10 gene from reoviruses in the bat CoV GCCDC1, first discovered in Rousettus leschenaultii bats in China. Here, we report the detection of GCCDC1 in four different bat species (Eonycteris spelaea, Cynopterus sphinx, Rhinolophus shameli and Rousettus sp.) in Cambodia. This finding demonstrates a much broader geographic and bat species range for this virus and indicates common cross-species transmission. Interestingly, one of the bat samples showed a co-infection with an Alpha CoV most closely related to RsYN14, a virus recently discovered in the same genus (Rhinolophus) of bat in Yunnan, China, 2020. Taken together, our latest findings highlight the need to conduct active surveillance in bats to assess the risk of emerging CoVs, especially in Southeast Asia.