New scientific study sheds light on how new viruses can spread from wildlife to humans, finding that animals that ate feces of bats due to the elimination of their food by the deforestation of forests in Uganda, became ill with a virus related to Covid-19.
This virus is just one of 27 found in bats that ate chimpanzees, antelopes and monkeys.
The particular study, carried out by the University of Stirling and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, began when Professor Powell Fedurek of the University of Stirling’s School of Natural Sciences in Scotland observed wild chimpanzees in Budongo Forest eating bat droppings, known as guano, from the hollow of a tree.
In July 2017, he installed cameras that captured other species eating guano.
According to the study, which is published in the journal Nature, guano is an “alternative source of vital importance” for the animals since the palms they once consumed were “harvested to extinction.”
The trees were used by locals in Budongo to dry tobacco leaves, which were then sold to international companies.
For just over six months, the researchers collected samples of guano from the tree cavity that the animals were captured eating from.
Laboratory analysis of the feces identified several viruses, including one related to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Opportunity” to prevent future pandemics
“It remains unknown whether the betacoronavirus found in guano is contagious to humans, but it provides an example of how new infections can be transmitted between species,” said the University of Stirling press release.
“About 1/4 of the 27 viruses we identified were mammalian viruses – the rest were insect and other invertebrate viruses,” he told the BBC the professor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the USA, Tony Goldberg.
“All 27 viruses were newly emerging, so we don’t know what effects they might have on humans or animals. But one virus stood out because it was a relative of a virus everyone knows: SARS coronavirus 2.”
Professor Powell Fedurek noted that the research “shows how deforestation driven by global demand for tobacco can expose wildlife and, by extension, humans to viruses that reproduce in bat guano , increasing the risk of spreading the virus.”
“Studies like ours shed light on how the virus is transmitted from wildlife to humans, ultimately improving our abilities to prevent future pandemics.”
With the present research, the scientists hope that their findings will make it possible to intervene in the transmission of viruses between species and ultimately help prevent future pandemics.
Tags: Wildlife eating bat droppings due deforestation link COVID19
