Global ‘Hot Spot’ where new coronavirus can appear identified
While the exact origin of SARS-COV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, remains unclear, scientists believe that the disease is likely to arise when the virus that infects the horseshoe bat can jump to humans.
Changes in the use of global land through human settlement, agricultural expansion and livestock production creates hot spots that are beneficial for coronavirus bats, and where the conditions are carefully for diseases to jump from mammals flying to humans, according to a study.
While the exact origin of SARS-COV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, remains unclear, scientists believe that the disease is likely to arise when the virus that infects the horseshoe bat can jump to humans.
It can be done directly through wildlife contacts to humans or indirectly by infecting the host of intermediate animals, such as Pangolin.
Horseshoe bats are known to carry various coronavirus, including genetically similar strains of which cause Covid-19 and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
The new study, published in the journal Nature Food, used remote sensing to analyze the pattern of land use along the range of horseshoes, which extend from Western Europe through Southeast Asia.
The researchers analyzed the fields of forest fragmentation, human settlements and agricultural production and livestock, and compared known horse tread habitats.
By doing that, they can identify the potential of hot spots where habitats benefit this species, and where the zoonotic virus called this has the potential to jump from bats to humans.
The researchers noted that most hot spots are currently grouped in China, where increasing demand for meat products has encouraged the expansion of livestock agriculture in the industry, industry.
The production of concentrated livestock is very alarming because this practice brings together a large population of genetically similar animals, often suppressed which is very vulnerable to the outbreak of disease, they said.
“Changes in land use can have an important impact on human health, either because we modify the environment, and also because they can increase our exposure to zoonosis,” said the study author Paolo d’Odorico, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley in the US.
“Every change in formal land use must be evaluated not only for environmental and social impacts on resources such as carbon stock, micro and water climate, but also for potential chain reactions that can affect human health,” D’Odorico said.
The researchers also identified locations that could easily become hot spots with changes in land use.
They found that the parts of Japan, the North Philippines and South China Shanghai are at risk of being hot spots with further forest fragmentation, while parts of Indochina and Thailand can turn to hot dots with increased livestock production.
“This analysis aims to identify the possibility of the emergence of new hot spots in response to an increase in one of the three attributes of land use, highlighting the two fields that can be suitable for abundance and types of land use changes that can cause hot spot activation,” said Co-Author Author Maria Cristina Rulli, a professor at Politecnico in Milano in Italy.
