Coronavirus outbreak raises question: Why are bat viruses so deadly? UC Berkeley

[gary]

Detailed story here :-
https://news.berkeley.edu/2020/02/10/coronavirus-outbreak-raises-question-why-are-bat-viruses-so-deadly/

[multiweb]

Were there bats for sales as food in that market where it all started?

[gary]

Hi Marc,

Some researchers are investigating whether the virus may have spread
from bats to pangolins.

Pangolins are the most widely trafficked mammal on the planet, they are
critically endangered and do appear in markets in China.

However, it is not clear whether any bats or pangolins, live or dead,
were on sale in December at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan.

New York Times Feb. 10, 2020 article on whether pangolins may have
been the intermediate host :-
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/10/science/pangolin-coronavirus.html

You will probably be familiar with the cases in Australia where the food
eaten by horses was infected by the fluids from flying foxes and in turn
contact with the horses was deadly to humans.

See :-
https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/factsheets/Pages/hendra_virus.aspx

In any case the Berkeley press release provides some insight into the remarkable immune and inflammatory systems of bats.

[multiweb]

That's scary. We won't win that virus race. The stupidest thing we did as a civilisation is probably to slowly remove ourselves from fauna and flora.

[bojan]

And, there are too many of us roaming the planet.

[Sunfish]

Bats are widely eaten in the islands to our North and fill many ecological niche as described by Tim Flannery in Among the Islands and by Tim Severin on the Wallace Line. I wonder if they have caused any outbreaks of problems there or is it an accident of putting certain unfamiliar species together.

Plenty of megabats in the sky here looking for blossom and figs. Apparently a shrinking population.

No Bats or Pangolins in the price list photographed at the market in question although it is surprising what is on offer:

https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/how-does-an-epidemic-spread-and-what-does-the-wildlife-trade-have-to-do-with-it-20200129-p53vvm.html

[Sunfish]

Thanks Gary. Good to see research still progressing. Maybe I am biased but it would be good to see our young immunologists funded to help answer some of these pressing science issues rather than pushed into the commercial arena.