The Construction Of A Web-based Analysis Platform For Zoonotic And Vector-borne Viruses

The past decade has witnessed significant threats and profound impacts to global public health and the socioeconomic security from emerging infectious diseases,including the previous Ebola and Zika endemics,as well as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.Emerging infectious diseases are often characterized by uncertainty,strong transmission and high mortality.In order to deal with such a vicious infectious disease,the world’s health organizations and scientists are fighting the emerging infectious disease outbreaks on the way.A retrospective analysis revealed that during the past～70 years,>80%of emerging infectious disease outbreaks are caused by zoonotic or vector-borne pathogens,of which the majority are viruses.In addition,evidence suggests that the increased global travel,urbanization and climate changes in recent years have dynamically affected the outbreak pattern of emerging infectious diseases.Therefore,recent studies have intensely focused on surveys of a massive number of different viruses(collectively termed the virome)carried by key animals that are recognized as the most relevant natural reservoirs or vectors for the causative agents of zoonotic and vector-borne diseases.Bats and rodents are the two most important reservoir hosts of many zoonotic viruses that can cross species barriers to infect humans,including lyssaviruses,ebolaviruses,hantaviruses and coronaviruses.In particular,bats have been suggested to be potential reservoirs of SARS-CoV-2,the causative agent of COVID-19,which is still posing a challenge to global public health.Mosquitos and ticks are wellestablished major vectors for the spread of many arboviral diseases,including dengue,chikungunya,West Nile encephalitis,yellow fever and Zika.In this study,we present a newly upgraded database of zoonotic and vectorborne viruses designated ZOVER(http://www.mgc.ac.cn/ZOVER).It incorporates two previously released databases,DBatVir and DRodVir,for bat-and rodentassociated viruses,respectively,and further collects up-to-date knowledge on mosquito-and tick-associated viruses to establish a comprehensive online resource for zoonotic and vector-borne viruses.The database currently 42,328 associated mammal viruses of 32 viral families detected from 992 animals species in 150 countries worldwide.Additionally,it integrates a set of online visualization tools for convenient comparative analyses to facilitate the discovery of potential patterns of virome diversity and ecological characteristics between/within different viral hosts/vectors.The ZOVER database will be a valuable resource for virologists,zoologists and epidemiologists to better understand the diversity and dynamics of zoonotic and vector-borne viruses and conduct effective surveillance to monitor potential interspecies spillover for efficient prevention and control of future emerging zoonotic diseases.