Optimization of environmental air sampling for viral metagenomics in a cave-roosting bat assemblage
Caleb A. Huntington, Cassandra M. Bonavita, Heather L. Wells, Jay D. Tiemann, Isamara Navarrete-Macias, Reed F. Johnson, Lisa E. Hensley, Simon J. Anthony · 2026
Read Optimization of environmental air sampling for viral metagenomics in a cave-roosting bat assemblage by Caleb A. Huntington, Cassandra M. Bonavita, Heather L. Wells, Jay D. Tiemann, Isamara Navarrete-Macias, Reed F. Johnson, Lisa E. Hensley, Simon J. Anthony (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13352922.txt.
Description
Caleb A Huntington and co-authors tune air sampling for viruses in a bat cave in a 2026 study. Catching viruses from the air, rather than from captured animals, is safer and cheaper for surveillance, and it works well in barns and buildings. Wild settings, though, are barely tested.
A cave-roosting bat colony served as the test bed. The team varied airflow, sampling time, and placement, plus the chemistry used to preserve samples afterward, and measured three outcomes: total mammal virus amount, RNA virus amount, and diversity. Their optimized recipe prepares the method for watching bat viruses, some of which can spill into people.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Caleb A. Huntington, Cassandra M. Bonavita, Heather L. Wells, Jay D. Tiemann, Isamara Navarrete-Macias, Reed F. Johnson, Lisa E. Hensley, Simon J. Anthony |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 36 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |