Changes in the diets of bats increase the spread of viruses, spill risk

A new study under the direction of researchers at Cornell University warns that the loss of habitats and changes in bat diets significantly increase the spread of viruses and may increase the risk of a spillover on humans. The results provide further evidence that environmental disorders may refuel future pandemics.

The study, published on February 19 in Royal Society B: Biological Sciencesexamined how diet changes affect virus discharges in bats. The researchers found that the bats that had to rely on low protein food-like them after the destruction of the habitat, were consumed to lose viruses for a longer period and to increase the likelihood of transmission.

“In our field studies, we observed a connection between food with poor quality food, an increased degradation of the Hendra virus and the subsequent spilling of the virus in horses,” said senior researcher Raina Plowight, Professor of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell. “We brought this question into the laboratory and discovered this breathtaking result: the diet had a profound effect on the ability of animals to extinguish a virus.”

Plowright and her colleagues used Jamaican fruit bats to test three diet types: a high protein, high fat and a low protein. If you are infected with a tribe of influenza that are endemic with bats, those on the low-protein diet throw more virus over longer periods. Unexpectedly, bats lose less virus on the high -fat diet than even with a standard diet.

The study illuminates a big global problem: the role of bats in wearing and spreading dangerous viruses. Bats are well-known reservoirs for fatal pathogens, including Sars-Cov-2, Sars-Cov-1, Nipah, Hendra and Ebola. Scientists warn that continued land development and climate change intensify the risk of a virus pills to humans.

“Some of these viruses are incredibly fatal, but we continue to clarify the country, change the climate and disrupt ecosystems – beats these animals, remove their food sources and creates new interfaces between wild animals and humans,” said Plowight. “All of this increases the risk of spilling.”

The research team, which made up of behavioral ecologists, immunologists, virologists and statistics, also analyzed how nutrition influences intestinal metabolites in bats. The amino acid citrull played a key role in increasing immune function in bats on the high-fat diet, although further studies are necessary to confirm their effects.

In addition, the researchers are now returning to the area to examine whether bats that consume lower quality diets, more aggressive and over larger areas, what may change the transfer of viruses.

“We try to have this iterative process in which we spend a lot of time in the field, develop hypotheses and then test them experimentally,” said co-author Caylee Falvo. “Then we go back to the field after what we learned in the laboratory.”

The study underlines urgency to protect natural habitats as a decisive step towards preventing future pandemics.

“We are currently in an extraordinary situation in which we are actively dismantling our ability to recognize the next pandemic and react to the next pandemic, even if we accelerate our expansion into the natural world,” said Plowight. “Many who have lived through Covid assume that it was the worst pandemic. But the next pandemic could be far more fatal. “

Research was carried out in cooperation with Montana State University, the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the Mississippi State University, the University of Missouri and Colorado State University with the support of the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and Darpa.

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