Decreasing our interactions with bats might help to lower the risk of viruses hopping from animals to humans, and triggering the next pandemic. — AFP
Can bats save the world?
That might be a bit of an oversimplification, but these small mammals could still help reduce the risk of global pandemics, such as the Covid-19 pandemic that started in 2020 and caused nearly seven million deaths worldwide, according to World Health Organization (WHO) data.
But only if you leave them alone, say scientists who have studied the subject.
It should be noted, however, that this is not a study, but an analysis presented by a team of experts from Cornell University and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in the United States, and published in The Lancet Planetary Health journal .
In this analysis, the experts suggest that it is essential to stop disturbing bats, and to stop disrupting them by modifying or affecting their habitat, in order to mitigate the risk of future global pandemics.
This may sound like a strange idea, but it's actually quite serious, if only because bats are reservoirs for a large number of viruses that can be transmitted to other species, including humans.
Such viruses include the rabies virus, Ebola, the Marburg virus, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 and the Nipah virus, to name but a few.
"In a globalised world with eight billion people, we can no longer ignore our interconnectedness with the wildlife and ecosystems around us.
"We must change humanity’s relationship with nature if we want to prevent the next pandemic of zoonotic origin -- and that can start with bats," WCS vice president for international policy Dr Susan Lieberman was quoted as saying in a news release.
For all these reasons, scientists are not pointing the finger at bats for their role in the emergence of certain pandemics, but at humanity, which needs to take "the most basic, common-sense upstream steps" to reduce the risk of another pandemic.
And that means, above all, leaving bats alone.
More concretely, the analysis suggests stopping the use, trade and consumption of bats, but also stopping the hunting of them, as well as leaving their natural habitat undisturbed.
The idea is to stop all activities likely to cause their dispersal, and thus increase the risk of spreading zoonoses – diseases or infections that are transmitted from animals to humans.
"If we can actually stop hunting, eating and trading bats, stay out of their caves, keep livestock away from areas where bats are concentrated, and if we can stop deforesting, degrading (or even start restoring) their natural habitats, we can indisputably lower the chances of another pandemic," concludes Cornell professor of wildlife health and health policy Dr Steven A. Osofsky in a statement.
Bats are a priority because, as the world has seen, they are considered to be reservoirs for many viruses, but the experts also point out that this observation applies to many other wild species.
This is something that researchers will be examining further over the coming weeks and months. – AFP Relaxnews
