Viral Bat Research Potentials
"What we're saying is that this cluster of viruses is a high risk."
"We found viruses in bats that could infect human cells in a lab. We published that information too, and now if you go to some of those caves, there's a sign up that says don't go in, no entry. That's the sort of thing that the [Chinese] government does."
"[WHO] took it seriously. The Chinese government took it seriously [by attempting to ban the wild animal trade, even banning consumption of wildlife from government banquets, which is] a big thing."
"[Behaviours like these are] culturally deep in our population habits ... These things go back five thousand years of history, it's not straightforward. You can't just ban it and it goes away."
"You can't say for sure [whether the current pandemic would have been prevented]. We also don't know for sure that blocking, you know, talking to communities and trying to get this reduced contact would actually stop an outbreak. But every little bit helps."
Peter Daszak, president, EcoHealth Alliance
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"It's hard to maybe fight for something that you don't know about when there are other things that are killing people. But examples like these just explain why we need to continue investing in both of these streams [SARS and Novel Coronavirus]."Scientists discovered a cave in southern China fifteen years ago with viruses identical to the one that has stricken China, similar as well to those that caused the SARS and MERS outbreaks. The location of the cave is protected; it is inhabited by wild bats found to carry a "rich gene pool of SARS-related coronaviruses", according to Peter Daszek, president of EcoHealth Alliance, a U.S. based non-profit organization monitoring wildlife diseases with the potential of causing pandemics.
"[While] it's hard to say what will prevent an outbreak [once authorities can understand where and when people are coming into contact with a potentially risky virus, and the kind of population behaviours that initiate contact] you can think about how to prevent that or how to reduce contact."
Dr.Tracey Goldstein, virologist, University of Carolina, Davis, Global Virome Project
A 2019 study warned of the potential for bats to cause the next cornavirus epidemic in China, resulting from their geographic proximity to a number of urban hotspots. Bats are known to host a higher number of zoonotic viruses than do other mammals which are known to have caused human disease and outbreaks in the past. The cave in question was discovered 60 kilometres from a city in the Yunnan province of China.
Post-SARS epidemic, the team of researchers was unable to find many bats present in the wildlife market, but did notice that people were out "hunting them in the wild and selling them directly to area restaurants". Which led them to collect bat feces from those in the cave, to test them. Viruses capable of infecting human cells in a lab were detected. The next step was to test the viral strains on mice to determine whether they might cause a SARS-like disease, and they did.
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| A captured mouse-eared bat being handled for sample collection in a cave in Guangdong Province, China. |
Following through, samples from people who lived near the bat caves were drawn by the team who then found that three percent had developed antibodies to the viruses; proof that the strains have in the past infected humans. "So that was a red flag", explained Dr. Daszak. "It's not that we didn't find it interesting. It went back into the freezer because we didn't have enough money [for further research]."
They published results of the strains that most resembled SARS, flagging them as most high risk, to authorities. The argument was for the viruses to be added to the WHO's top pathogens of high risk to human health, after publication of their research in a number of accredited academic journals. The team returned to the same regions in China to interview people in rural communities to identify who might be at highest risk in wildlife contact.
In studying the current coronavirus outbreak, scientists have not yet been successful in narrowing down how the disease spread to humans. Had sufficient funding been available for the bat survey research team, Dr.Daszak believes that further research on the strain could have made a difference in preventing or minimizing the impact of the current outbreak. Speculation to be sure, but given the risks involved, proactive in nature, which is far better than responding to a pandemic having neglected the possibility of prevention.
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| Scientists record sample collection near bat cave, Guangdong Province, China. Scientists took samples from bat faeces and tested them for viruses in the lab. |
Labels: Bat Caves, China, Guandong Province, Novel Coronavirus, Viruses
posted by Pieface @ Saturday, February 08, 2020
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