摘要
In the Chinese zodiac,2020 was the Year of the Rat.But it was remembered more as a“Year of the Bat”due to the great attention in the general public and scientific community on the role of bats as the reservoir of emerging zoonotic viruses,including severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus(SARS-CoV)(1)and the coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)virus,also known as SARS-CoV-2(2).Here we provide a summary of our current knowledge on the relationship between bats and viruses,particularly coronaviruses,and discuss the various hypotheses for the origin of the COVID-19 virus.
