In order to prevent the next pandemic, researchers have been examining where new viruses come from in order to stop them from spreading and infecting humans. A new study published in the Nature journal reveals that bats are the number one culprit when it comes to carrying a high number of viruses.
Researchers at the nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance study viruses that are known to infect mammals. They discovered about 600 viruses found in over 750 different species. After calculating the number of viruses from each species, the researchers then isolated certain characteristics that would make humans more likely to contract the virus. Species who live in close proximity to humans and are more closely genetically related increased these odds.
After identifying that bats carry the most viruses out of all the species tested, researchers are investigating why.
“A lot of people don’t realize that these viruses have been on the planet for a long time, and they are in populations of animals all around the world,” study author Kevin Olival, associate vice president for research at EcoHealth Alliance, said. “What we did in this study is prioritize where we should look if we want to stop the next Ebola or Zika from emerging.”
Out of all of the groups of mammals, every single one of them carried viruses that could potentially inflict humans. For different areas around the world, the risk for obtaining a specific virus varied depending on the prominence of a certain species. Areas in South and Central America, as well as Asia, have the highest bat population, while Central America, Africa and Southeast Asia have an increased risk of contracting a virus from primates.
The author pointed out that it’s not just bats to blame, but also humans for interacting with animals that could potentially contain a disease. Olival and the other researchers hope to utilize their findings by being able to prevent these viruses from spreading.
“These diseases are not just randomly jumping into people,” he said. “We see time and time again that it is the human disturbances in the environment that are causing these diseases to emerge. It is our interactions with these species that are causing diseases to jump.”
