Climate change may have played a “key role” in the spread of the pandemic of coronavirus, a new study that analyzed the forests of Southeast Asia, known as the “global epicenter” for bat species. Global spread of the deadly pathogen that has damaged the world as a result of shifts in global bat diversity may be caused by climate change, according to the study published Feb. 6 in the journal Science of the Total Environment. The emergence of SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 can be attributed to the clearing of the vegetation over the past 100 years, and the migration of an additional 40 species of bat into the area, the study says. Bats are a zoonotic origin of the coronavirus, scientists in the study noted, adding that climate change has triggered the global spread of bats.
[Credit: Science of the Total Environment journal]
The research found that the Yunnan province in southern China and nearby areas of Myanmar and Laos have been seeing an increase in climate richness driven by climate change. “The number of CoVs present in an area is strongly linked to the local species richness of bats, and the weather has an influence on controlling the geographical distribution of species,” the study said. Those regions, which are considered to be the center of origin of coronavirus disease, have seen at least a100 CoVs carried by bats in the last several years, the presence of the coronavirus, which two million people have killed bats in southeast Asia, researchers at the University of Cambridge found, after examining samples of temperature and water data over the past 100 years. Climate change found the habitat requirements for bat species, the study found. And as many as 40 species have migrated to southern China, Laos, and Myanmar. Each of these bats has an average of 2.7 coronaviruses.
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[Credit: Science of the Total Environment journal]
“Our paper is a long way from saying that the pandemic would not have happened without climate change,” said lead author Robert Beyer of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology. “But I regret to see that the increase is not conventional. In bats and bats- carried coronaviruses make something like this less likely to occur. ”
Damage to bat habitat
According to Dr. Beyer, the sequence of the spread of coronavirus from animals to humans has not yet been established, however, science suggests that climate change and habitat destruction in Asia may increase bat species. close to the human population. “It’s two sides of similar bases: we go deeper into their habitat but at the same time climate change can push the pathogen to our direction,” he said. To prevent the deadly pandemics in the future, scientists in the study urged governments to take measures including urban expansion and restrict farming, he said, that they can control to effective on endemic disease risks in wild animals.
[Credit: Science of the Total Environment journal]
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