Vampire bats may have contracted H5N1 bird flu in Peru, raising worries about further spread Bats could form a bridge between marine and terrestrial mammals, scientists say

Our H5 avian flu in marine bat story is in News from Science 🌊🦇🦠 thanks @martinenserink.bsky.social for covering it! Also excited to see my MSc lecturer @thijskuiken.bsky.social commented on it!

📰 News link
www.science.org/content/arti...

🔬Preprint
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

My 1st first-author paper is out as a preprint! Excited to share the fascinating story of marine-feeding vampire bats 🌊🦇 We found that marine-diet bats were exposed to #H5#AvianFlu 🦠 from marine wildlife and could potentially spread it to livestock via blood feed🩸
doi.org/10.1101/2025.11.09.686930

It was such a fun and exciting experience participating in the 3-Minute thesis competition, and I came second in 2025 at Glasgow🦇🥈 Thanks to my very intriguing blood-feeding bats🩸🦠! @sbohvm.gla.ac.uk @uofglasgow.bsky.social
youtu.be/fkZOgAS3Izo?...

Dynamics of influenza transmission in vampire bats revealed by longitudinal monitoring and a large-scale anthropogenic perturbation Common vampire bats maintain bat-associated influenza virus H18N11 across Peru.

Our new paper on bat influenza transmission dynamics is out. Check it out 👀🦇🦠 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Really enjoyed the first day of the Influenza Update Meeting at the University of Glasgow! So nice to be introduced to the flu community - kind and helpful people! Very grateful for the opportunity to share my work! Special thanks to @socialinfluenza.bsky.social!