The possible action that SARS - CoV-2 jumped tohumans from batshas led some to call for theculling of bat universe . However , new grounds suggests this so - call " safety measure " would require destroying all lovesome - blooded animals as human - infecting computer virus exist across mammals and birds , and no animals are particularly threatening . If squash racquet give us coronoviruses , as well as Hendra and rabies , and rats ( via flea ) produced the bubonic pestilence , it is proposed the world would be safe off without either of them . Rats have proven reasoning by elimination resistant ( pied piper aside ) but many bat coinage are quite vulnerable , even without measured action .
Dr Nardus MollentzeandDr Daniel Streickerof the University of Glasgow call up it clock time to examine their reputation as the prime harbor for future epidemics . The duo conducted a literature search for all example of computer virus , whether DNA or RNA , that are bang to taint humans and have also been recorded in mammals or birds . They did n’t check for bacterial infection , thus rent rats ( orgerbils ) off the hook for plague , but still found 415 examples .
InProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , the pair account that “ the balance of virus that taint humans depart minimally across reservoir taxonomic orders . ” In other actor’s line , the next pandemic is as probable to come from zebrasas any specific cricket bat mintage . It ’s rightful that more of the viruses identified are host by certain groups of animals than others . However , this is not because certain groups of animals aredisease - ridden Typhoid Marys , but because the more coinage of animal a group contains , the more virus it will host .
If a new computer virus is more likely to go forth from bats than slothfulness , the authors conclude , it ’s because there are more than 1,200 metal money of bat – make up 20 percentage of all know mammal metal money – whereas sloths and their relative are scarce . This is one reason why calls to extinguish Australian fruitbats , assome have advocated , make no sense . Bats are an exceptionally diverse chemical group , many of which have little in common with the coronavirus hosts .
In a few case , the author think our faithful human relationship to another specie makes it more probable a virus will cross over , such as whensimian immunodeficiency virusbecame HIV . More broadly , however , the findings contradict the theme “ special reservoir ” pose a heightened risk of infection thanks to characteristic like our own .
Mollentze and Streicker contend this means we or else need to maintain broad surveillance of computer virus family that could pose a threat to world , rather than concentrate on a few brute host .
