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Bats and the Viruses
26 May 2020
Whenever the name “Bat” comes to our mind, we think of horror stories, vampires, haunted houses, and nevertheless, superhero Batman. I welcome the 20th century which gave us a chance to do research on Bat. Apart from being a mammal that can fly, bats are the perfect host for lots of diseases causing viruses. Bats have been known to carryrabies,Hendra and Marburg viruses, and research has also suggested that bats may be the original hosts of Ebola, Nipah, and SARS-CoV.
A disease that can be transmitted from animals to people or, more specifically, a disease that normally exists in animals but can infect humans is referred to as Zoonotic diseases. Bat, also known as, flying fox, hosts more than 61 zoonotic viruses and 137 viruses in total.
Now, a prominent question that comes to our mind is “With so many deadly viruses, how do bats survive?”
Researchers believe that it actually comes from their ability to fly. When they fly, their body temperature rises to 100 degrees Fahrenheit and heart rate surges to more than 1000 beats per minute. For most land mammals, these are signals that would trigger death, but bats have developed special immune systems to deal with the stress of flying. The bat’s evolutionary adaptations to a flight changed their immune systems. Bodies of bats make molecules, which help repair cell damage. Also, their systems do not overreact to infections, which keep them unaffected from the many viruses they carry. Moreover, their immune system is basically always on the lookout for a new viral invasion, so when a virus attacks, bats can swiftly protect their bodies against it. They don't necessarily kill the virus, but they protect their cells against it, essentially acting as viral incubators, coexisting and tolerating it just enough to survive.
Relation of spreading of virus from bat to humans
Humans have started exploring the areas where bats naturally live which has led to an increased risk of contact with these animals. Virus originates from natural sources and comes in contact with humans via a carrier in most cases. Some deadly viruses originated from bats are as follows:
- Nipah Virus (NiV) - The first case of Nipah virus (NiV) infections affected Bangladesh and Malaysia in 1998 . This virus causes respiratory disease and swelling of the brain — encephalitis — in pigs. Human contact with infected pigs results in severe encephalitis, fever, and eventually death.
- Ebola Virus - Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, is a severe, fatal illness in humans. Outbreaks of Ebola in West Africa (2014-16 and 2018-present) have been attributed to human interaction with bats.
- Coronavirus (CoV) - It is a type of virus family that infects humans, typically leading to an upper respiratory infection (URI).
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) is a virus first infected humans in the Guangdong province of southern China in 2002 and Civet cat has been its carrier.
Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) was first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012. Camel has been the intermediate host of MERS-CoV.
Novel Covid-19 - In December 2019, a novel coronavirus was identified as the cause of a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, a city in the Hubei Province of China. Scientists believe that source of the latest COVID-19 virus is Bat and pangolins are the carrier.
4- Some more deadly viruses originated from Bats are Marburg, Hendra (a Henipavirus), Lyssavirus.
There are more viruses on Earth than there are stars in the universe or cells in the human body and they have their existence on Earth before humans. Disturbance made to the ecosystem by man causes severe threats. Mankind can no longer consider itself separate from the natural world around him. Everything is interconnected and when one thing is out of balance it causes the entire organism to be weakened. A balance has to be maintained so that the humans and the other living environment coexist harmoniously.
Mrs. Sneha Kushwaha
Assistant Professor (Pharmaceutical Chemistry)
Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Rama University, KANPUR (U.P.)
Contact no. - 7985707657