Filipino researchers are looking for viruses in bats to prevent the next pandemic
Ebola, SARS, and MERS have all been linked to bats too.
By Danial Martinus March 23, 2021
> Science
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Researchers at the University of the Philippines Los Banos in Laguna province have been trekking day-in and day-out through thick rainforests, catching thousands of bats to extract DNA swabs before releasing them back into the wild.
The Japanese-funded research aims to make a simulation model that will help predict and prevent another pandemic similar to COVID-19.
Researchers set up a mist net designed to catch bats. IMAGE: Reuters
More specifically, the 'virus hunters', as the researchers call themselves, hope the bats can help them figure out just what influences the coming of a pandemic in the first place.
This will then help them come up with ways to take preventative action, as opposed to reactive action. Factors such as climate, temperature, and the speed of transmission (including animal-to-human) will all be studied as well.
Taking an oral swab from a bat. IMAGE: Reuters
"What we're trying to look into are other strains of coronavirus that have the potential to jump to humans," says ecologist Phillip Alviola, who has studied bat viruses for over a decade.
"If we know the virus itself and we know where it came from, we know how to isolate that virus geographically."
A lot of the work requires long, exhausting, and dangerous trips into the rainforest, often in the darkness of night.
Into the night. IMAGE: Reuters
However, the virus hunters also target bats that roost in buildings by setting up special mist nets that are 'invisible' enough for them to fly through and get caught. Like the rainforest hikes, this often happens when the sun is down.
From an outsider perspective, the entire process looks 'simple'. The researchers catch their bats, obtain DNA samples through oral and faecal matter swabs, and analyze their findings in a lab. The target is to find a coronavirus that's similar to COVID-19, if any.
Phillip Alviola examines the wing of a bat. IMAGE: Reuters
But of course, it's no walk in the park.
Like any pathogen-related task, everyone has to take special precautions in making sure some unknown virus in the bats they catch doesn't get transmitted to them.
Dealing with bats is just like dealing with viruses themselves. IMAGE: Reuters
"It's really scary these days," says research aide Edison Cosico. "You never know if the bat is already a carrier."
And it isn't as simple as spotting a bat that 'looks' sick. Host species like bats don't show any symptoms of a virus if they're carrying one.
IMAGE: Reuters
According to bat ecologist Kirk Taray, as human and animal proximity grows closer and closer, especially as the former continues to encroach on wild habitats, the risk of animal-to-human transmission also increases.
"By having baseline data on the nature and occurrence of the potentially zoonotic virus in bats, we can somehow predict possible outbreaks."
Viruses like Ebola, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) have all been linked to bats.
Let's hope we don't have to find out about another coronavirus when it's already too late.
Read more science stories:
COVID-19 may trigger diabetes in healthy people, study finds
Long COVID symptoms are mysteriously disappearing for some vaccinated people
7 symptoms of MIS-C: A rare, deadly condition linked to COVID in kids
Cover image sourced from Reuters.
Topics: Science, Wildlife, the philippines, coronavirus, Bats, Infectious Diseases, Transmission
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