SARS-like coronaviruses in horseshoe bats ( Rhinolophus spp.) in Russia, 2020

We found and genetically described two novel SARS-like coronaviruses in feces and oral swabs of the great ( R. ferrumequinum ) and the lesser ( R. hipposideros ) horseshoe bats in southern region of Russia. The viruses, named Khosta-1 and Khosta-2, together with related viruses from Bulgaria and Kenya, form a separate phylogenetic lineage. We found an evidence of recombination events in evolutionary history of Khosta-1, which involved the acquisition of structural proteins S, E, and M as well as nonstructural genes ORF3, ORF6, ORF7a, and ORF7b from a virus that is closely related to Kenyan isolate BtKY72. Examination of bats by RT-PCR revealed that 62,5% of great horseshoe bats in one of the caves were positive for Khosta-1 virus while its overall prevalence was 14%. The prevalence of Khosta-2 was 1,75%. Our results show that SARS-like coronaviruses circulate in horseshoe bats in the region and provide a new data on their genetic diversity.