In 2017 Duke-NUS Medical School, which is a partnership between Duke University in North Carolina and the National University of Singapore, collaborated with NCBS on the project, Thattai said....As for the US Department of Defense funding, this was a grant to the Duke-NUS to track viruses found in bats that could lead to deadly viral infections. https://www.asiatimes.com/2020/02/article/the-weaponized-wuhan-virus-that-really-wasnt/
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Bats are known “reservoirs for several zoonotic pathogens, including filoviruses”. Filoviruses include the deadly Ebola, and are known to cause haemorrhagic fever in human beings. The study found Ebola antibodies in some of the human subjects despite the fact that the disease, which has killed thousands in Africa over the years, has never been reported in the area.
It was conducted by researchers from the Bengaluru-based National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS, which comes under the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research), China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology, Duke-NUS of Singapore, and Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, US. The study, published in the reputed PLOS journal, was expected to help explore the prevention of diseases like Ebola, which caused thousands of deaths in western Africa between 2013 and 2016. ...Questions have reportedly also been raised about the fact that the study’s funding sources included the US Department of Defence’s Defence Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), which deals in countering weapons of mass destruction....
The corresponding author of the study is affiliated to Duke-NUS....NCBS is not a direct recipient of research funds from DTRA.” No biological samples or infectious agents, it added, were transferred into or out of India, and “this study has NO connection with coronaviruses”. https://theprint.in/science/why-coronavirus-has-triggered-a-controversy-over-2017-study-on-bats-in-nagaland/360395/
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10-31-19 Filoviruses, including ebola-viruses and marburg-viruses, are pathogens with epidemic potential. They were previously detected in bats and have caused disease outbreaks in humans with a high case fatality rate. Here, we tested sera obtained from bats and humans at a high-risk interface for the presence of filovirus reactive antibodies. Human participants were engaged in annual bat hunts, possibly exposing them to bat-borne viruses. We report the exposure of humans to filoviruses that were likely derived from the two sampled bat species. The bats contain antibodies raised to presumably three distinct filoviruses....
The genome of a novel filovirus, Měnglà virus, was detected in bats from China [8] and is the second Asiatic filovirus described after Reston virus [9]. Lloviu virus was discovered in Spain in 2011 and detected in Hungary in 2016 [10, 11] . Bats are hunted by humans across Africa and Asia, and at least 167 bat species are consumed [12]. High-risk activities, such as bat hunting and mining in bat-dwelling caves, pose a threat of cross-species filovirus transmission [13].
In the Northeast Indian state of Nagaland, local ethnic groups have conducted bat harvests for at least seven generations as a source of food and traditional medicine. n These bat hunters are exposed to saliva, blood and excreta from the bat species Rousettus leschenaultii and Eonycteris spelaea. We conducted a serological survey of both hunted bat species and human hunters to study if humans have been exposed to filoviruses potentially originating from bats.
journals.plos.org › plosntds › article › journal.pntd.000773 .........................................................................
HUBEI, Central China — On a balmy spring evening, Luo Dongsheng and his team hike through lush, mountainous countryside to the mouth of a vast cave. Beneath their feet lie layers of bat dung; thousands of winged black dots crowd the cavern walls. At the entrance, the team suspend a net between four strong bamboo poles and settle down to wait.
A few minutes later, several roundleaf bats fly into the net. Carefully, Luo loosens one of the 10-centimeter specimens from the netting, takes a cotton swab, and quickly wipes the bat’s mouth and anus. The swab then goes into a plastic sample tube. The team follows Luo’s lead for three hours, eventually catching more than 40 bats.
A tall Ph.D. student with an easy smile, 26-year-old Luo is part of a team of researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). Their one-day expedition to Taiyi Cave — a cavern 2,200 meters deep, located 100 kilometers south of Hubei’s provincial capital, Wuhan — is less about the bats themselves than the viruses they carry. 
.Luo Dongsheng, a researcher at the WIV, prepares nets used for catching bats at Taiyi Cave in Xianning, Hubei province, May 3, 2018. Wang Yiwei/Sixth Tone https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1002326/how-chinas-bat-caves-hold-the-secret-to-preventing-epidemics
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About 40% of all mammal species are rodents (2,277 species); they are found in vast numbers on all continents except Antarctica. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodent
Bats are true mammals in that they give birth to live young, produce milk to feed their
young, have hair, and they are warm-blooded (they can self-regulate their body
temperature). Bats are unique among mammals in that they can fly....As a percentage of total mammal
species on earth, bats account for about 25% https://www.lampreyriver.org/UploadedFiles/Files/The_Nature_of_Bats.pdf
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