Before COVID-19, the 2014-16 Ebola epidemic was the last major global health scare, and now there are fresh outbreaks of Ebola in the African nations of Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo. A common denominator in both COVID-19 and Ebola outbreaks is the role bats may have played in the eventual transmission to humans.
Bucknell University biology professors DeeAnn Reeder and Ken Field have just been awarded a $2.9 million grant by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for research to gain a better understanding of that role, specifically as it relates to Ebola. Their five-year study will take them to Uganda with a small number of Bucknell undergraduate students to study three native bat species — fruit, free-tailed and horseshoe — that have varying potential links to the spread of the Ebola virus.