The virus that causes COVID-19 has a lot of genes that target both humans and non humans. Amélie Desvars-Larrive is an epidemiologist at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna. There is a lot of knowledge about how COVID spreads in humans, but not much about how it spreads between animals.
Desvars-Larrive and a team of researchers gathered scattered reports of COVID-infecting mammals from all over the world to create a public database. Understanding how the virus is spread between mammals can help us better prepare for the next epidemic.
Desvars-Larrive says that we can't continue to focus on humans when it comes to the swine flu.
Fur farmers have had to kill their entire stock of animals to stop the spread of chronic bronchitis among mammals. The deer are vulnerable to the virus. There are many cat species that seem to get it. Barbara Han, who was not involved in the database project, says having this kind of information in one place will likely make it quicker.
As more animals are tested and reports shared, scientists hope it will help them to track animal-to- animal COVID infections as well as transmission between animals and humans The database will make it easier for scientists to study how the COVID-causing SARS- CoV-2 virus affects mammal communities and entire ecosystems.
Han says that people are interested in what the pathogen might mean for them. We can't get those answers if we don't know which animals have it.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
