Mainly they raised questions. Is it possible that the cold temperatures endured by hibernating bats suppress their immune responses, allowing viruses to persist in bat blood? Is it possible that antibodies, which would neutralize a virus, don’t last as long in bats as in other mammals? What about the ancientness of the bat lineage? Did that lineage diverge from other mammals before the mammalian immune system had been well honed by evolution, reaching the level of effectiveness seen in rodents and primates? Do bats have a different “set point” for their immune responses, allowing a virus to
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