Tylonycteris bat coronavirus HKU4 (Bat-CoV HKU4) is an enveloped, positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus mammalian Group 2 Betacoronavirus that has been found to be genetically related to the Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (MERS-CoV) that is responsible for the 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy.
Transmission The exact means of transmission to humans is not yet well known. However, it has been demonstrated that betaCoV's including HKU4 have the propensity to recombine and cause interspecies transmission. However, this is not seen in Group C betaCov's to which MERS-CoV is most closely related.
See also Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) Tylonycteris Pipistrellus Human coronavirus HKU1 Human coronavirus OC43 Pipistrellus bat coronavirus HKU5 RNA virus Positive/negative-sense London1 novel CoV/2012
References
External links London1-nCoV-2012 phylogenetic tree Coronaviruses Viralzone: Betacoronavirus Virus Pathogen Database and Analysis Resource (ViPR): Coronaviridae
