The boy was bitten and passed the infection on to his mother and both were dead within a week. The disease was then spread far and wide by mourners who came to the funeral.
Scientists have long believed that bats are the main carriers for the disease but it is rare for them to pass it on to man.
Most of the previous outbreaks have been caused by meat from dead infected animals collected by hunters who then sell it on.
Fruit bats, however, are widely eaten in rural west Africa – either smoked, grilled or in a spicy soup.
The team lead by epidemiologist Fabian Leendertz, a disease ecologist at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, are expected to publish their results in a major journal soon.
Initial research believed that a new strain of Ebola had emerged in west Africa but according to Herr Leendertz the strain of the disease is one related to as Zaire ebolavirus, identified more than 10 years ago in the Congo.
Herr Leendertz’s team believe that an infected straw-coloured fruit bat brought the disease to Guinea. The mammals are known to travel long distances and usually settle in forests near cities.
More than 1,300 people have died in the current epidemic many in Liberia.
Herr Leendertz said: "We spent eight days in Meliandoua. They told us they regularly catch bats, like every other village in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. The evidence is not 100 percent and we can only say that it is possible.
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