Bats are intriguing creatures, like gangstas of the mammal world- always hanging around in dark caves, lurking in the shadows and some species have really cool names too, like the “Vampire Bat”. These obscure species are the only Mammals that are truly capable of flight.
All this put together makes them all the more mysterious- probably why Batman was equally terrified and fascinated by them. Although tempted to make more batman references, let’s move forward to the actual discussion.
A recent study carried out over a five year period has shown that bats are a host to a wide range of coronaviruses worldwide. Coronaviruses typically affect the gut, respiratory tract of mammals including humans – they are associated with the common cold, pneumonia and were the cause of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2002; although, only a fraction of these viruses are known to infect people. Further, these viruses have a history of jumping between/onto distantly related species.
Simon Anthony, a virologist at Columbia University and his team of researchers trapped and released about 12,300 bats, 3,400 rodents and shrews, and 3,500 monkeys, later tracked these animals to 20 countries across the globe. With the help of
local researchers, they then bagged the released bats, and collected samples of the animals’ saliva, urine and faeces which were then sent to labs for genetic testing. Through thorough testing, it was found that approximately 10% of the bats carried coronaviruses, compared to 0.2% of the other animals sampled, in addition to discovering that the diversity of the viruses was highest in places where multiple bat species lived, like the Amazon rainforest.The team also observed that coronaviruses particularly in Africa had spread among unrelated bat species 4x times more often than their counterparts in Mexico, Brazil, Bolivia and Peru did. However, this occurrence could be due to genetic differences in the viruses present in the region, or to possibly due to the way that different bat species interact in different forests.
“If we ever want to get ahead of the curve, we need to learn about the process of emergence in the first place.” concluded Mr. Anthony.
