'Shift in bat diversity': Climate change may have played 'key role' in COVID-19 pandemic
Emergence of SARS-CoV-2 can be attributed to clearance of vegetation in past 100 years, and the migration of an additional 40 bat species due to climate change.
- World News
- 3 min read
Climate change could have had a "key role" in the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, a new study that analysed the Southeast Asia forests, known as "a global hotspot" for bat species revealed. The global spread of the deadly pathogen that wreaked havoc on the world may have been the result of shifts in global bat diversity caused due to climate change, according to the study published on February 6 in the journal Science of the Total Environment. The emergence of SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 can be attributed to the clearance of the vegetation over the past 100 years, and the migration of an additional 40 species of the bat into the region, the study purported. Bats are a zoonotic origin of the coronavirus, scientists in the study noted, adding that climate change has shifted the global distribution of bats.
[Credit: Science of the Total Environment journal]
The research found, that the region of southern Chinese Yunnan province and neighbouring regions in Myanmar and Laos have witnessed a climate change-driven increase in bat richness. “The number of CoVs present in an area is strongly correlated with local bat species richness, which in turn is affected by climatic conditions that drive the geographical distributions of species,” the study revealed. These regions speculated to be the center of origin of the coronavirus disease, have witnessed at least a100 bat-borne CoVs in the past several years the coronavirus, which has killed two million people is suspected to have originated in bats in southeast Asia, researchers at the University of Cambridge found, after they studied samples of temperature and rainfall data over the last 100 years. Climate change reshuffled the habitat requirements for the bat species, the study found. And as many as 40 species have relocated to southern China, Laos, and Myanmar. Each of these bats carries an average of 2.7 coronaviruses.
[Credit: Science of the Total Environment journal]
"Our paper is a long way away from saying the pandemic would not have happened without climate change," lead author Robert Beyer of Cambridge's zoology department said."But I find it difficult to see that this climate-driven increase in bats and bat-borne coronaviruses make something like this less likely to happen.”
Bat habitat destruction
According to Dr Beyer, the chain of transmission of coronavirus from animals to humans is yet to be established, however, science suggests that the changing climate and habitat destruction in Asia may have brought the bat species closer to the human population." It's two sides of a similar coin: we penetrate deeper into their habitat but at the same time climate change can have the effect that it pushes the pathogen in our direction," he said. In order to curb the future deadly pandemics, scientists in the study urged governments to take measures including limiting urban expansion and farming, which it said, can effectively manage risks of disease endemic in wild animals.
[Credit: Science of the Total Environment journal]
Published By : Zaini Majeed
Published On: 7 February 2021 at 13:24 IST