How did the very first bat get the rabies virus to begin with?

Question

I’ve tried searching for how rabies originated and results keep saying Old World bats. What I actually want to know is how did the bats get the virus, how did that very first bat get infected?

In: 24

Answer 1

Rabies belongs to a whole family of related viruses called Lyssaviruses, many of whom have a primary host in bats. Viruses are not ‘alive’ by any coherent definition of living, but they do have genetic material and so are affected by natural selection. It would have evolved from other Lyssaviruses.