Page 12 - aruba-today-20201215

A12 SCIENCE
Tuesday 15 december 2020

Scientists focus on bats for clues to prevent next pandemic

By CHRISTINA LARSON, are likely to backfire.
ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL and "Stress is a huge factor in up-
MARCELO SILVA DE SOUSA setting the natural balance
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — that bats have with their vi-
Night began to fall in Rio ruses — the more you stress
de Janeiro's Pedra Branca bats, the more they shed vi-
state park as four Brazil- ruses," said Vikram Misra, a
ian scientists switched on virologist at the University of
their flashlights to traipse Saskatchewan in Canada.
along a narrow trail of mud "People have a lot of mis-
through dense rainforest. conceptions about bats.
The researchers were on a They're nocturnal and look
mission: capture bats and a little weird flying," said
help prevent the next glob- Hannah Kim Frank, a biolo-
al pandemic. gist at Tulane University. "But
A few meters ahead, near- bats aren't aggressive —
ly invisible in the darkness, and attacking bats doesn't
a bat made high-pitched help control diseases."
squeaks as it strained its Bats also play vital roles in
wings against the thin nylon ecosystems: They consume
net that had ensnared it. insects like mosquitos, polli-
One of the researchers re- nate plants like agave, and
moved the bat, which used disperse seeds.
its pointed teeth to bite her "We actually need bats in
gloved fingers. the wild to consume insects
The November nighttime that otherwise destroy cot-
outing was part of a proj- ton, corn and pecan har-
ect at Brazil's state-run Fio- vests," said Kristen Lear, an
cruz Institute to collect and ecologist at Bat Conserva-
study viruses present in wild tional International.
animals — including bats, A researcher for Brazil's state-run Fiocruz Institute takes an oral swab sample from a bat captured A better approach to mini-
which many scientists be- in the Atlantic Forest, at Pedra Branca state park, near Rio de Janeiro, Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020. mize disease risk, Frank
lieve were linked to the out- Associated Press said, is simply to minimize
break of COVID-19. contact between wild bats
The goal now is to identify recent epidemics, includ- unusual immune systems, biodiverse areas like tropi- and people and livestock.
other viruses that may be ing SARS, MERS, Ebola, and that's related to their cal forests — means "we are In Australia, widespread
highly contagious and le- Nipah virus, Hendra virus ability to fly," said Raina seeing higher rates of con- destruction of winter flow-
thal in humans, and to use and Marburg virus. Plowright, an epidemiolo- tact between wildlife and ering eucalyptus trees that
that information to devise A 2019 study found that of gist who studies bats at humans, creating more provide nectar for fruit bats
plans to stop them from viruses originating from the Montana State University. opportunities for spillover," — known locally as "flying
ever infecting people — to five most common mam- Plowright and other bat sci- said Cara Brook, a disease foxes" — prompted the bats
forestall the next potential malian sources — primates, entists believe evolutionary ecologist at the University to move into areas closer to
global disease outbreak rodents, carnivores, un- tweaks that help bats re- of California, Berkeley. human settlements looking
before it gets started. gulates and bats — those cover from the stress of fly- In India, a National Mission for alternate meals, includ-
In a highly connected from bats are the most viru- ing, when their metabolic on Biodiversity and Human ing to a suburb of Brisbane
world, an outbreak in one lent in humans. rate rises sixteen-fold, also Well-Being has been pend- called Hendra.
place endangers the entire Bats are a diverse group, give them extra protection ing since 2018 and will likely There, the bats transmit-
globe, just as the corona- with more than 1,400 spe- against pathogens. be launched next year. A ted a virus to horses, which
virus did. And the Brazilian cies flitting across every Probing the secrets of bat core part of the plan is to in turn infected people.
team is just one among continent except Antarcti- immune systems may help set up 25 virus surveillance First identified in 1994 and
many worldwide racing to ca. But what many have in scientists understand more sites across the country. named Hendra virus, it is
minimize the risk of a sec- common are adaptations about when bats do shed A varied patchwork of virus highly lethal, killing 60% of
ond pandemic this century. that allow them to carry viruses, as well as provid- surveillance programs exists people and 75% of horses
It's no coincidence that viruses that are deadly in ing hints for possible future in several other countries, infected.
many disease scientists are humans and livestock while medical treatment strate- but funding tends to wax To potentially reverse the
focusing attention on bats, exhibiting minimal symp- gies, said Arinjay Banerjee, and wane with the political movement of bats, Mon-
the the world's only flying toms themselves — mean- a virologist at McMaster climate and sense of ur- tana State University's Plow-
mammals. Bats are thought ing they are able travel and University in Canada. gency. right and colleagues based
to be the original or inter- shed those viruses, instead Increasing destruction and One approach that won't in Australia are studying
mediary hosts for multiple of being quickly hobbled. fragmentation of habitats help, scientists say, is treat- restoring the bats' original
viruses that have spawned "The secret is that bats have worldwide — especially ing bats as the enemy — vili- habitat. "The idea is to plant
fying them, throwing stones new forests and make sure
or trying to burn them out they are away from places
of caves. An attack along with domestic animals and
those lines took place this people," she said.
spring, when villagers in the Bats aren't the problem,
Indian state of Rajasthan said Ricardo Moratelli, co-
identified bat colonies in ordinator of the Fiocruz
abandoned forts and pal- project in Brazil. "The prob-
aces and killed hundreds lem is when human beings
with bats and sticks. enter into contact with
Scientists say such tactics them," he said.q