Bats And Humans Are Closer Than Ever, And The Risks Have Never Been So Clear

During the Pandemic, the link between habitat destruction, climate change, and the emergence of new Viruses has never been more obvious.

The spread of COVID-19 and the arrival of SARS-coV-2 brought into sharp focus how human activities can bring wild animals closer to humans.

Researchers wanted to show the connections between habitat loss, animal behavior, and viral spillover in a new study.

The scientists looked at the bat-borne Hendra virus which can jump over into humans via horses.

"Interactions between land-use change and climate now lead to persistent bat residency in agricultural areas, where periodic food shortages drive clusters of spillovers," the authors wrote.

The zoonotic spillover describes how diseases found in animals can be dangerous to humans. There are a number of zoonotic diseases that make a grim list.

Severe or even fatal illness can be caused by the Hendra virus, which was first discovered in 1994. There has been an increase in the number of Hendra virus spillovers in Australia in the last few years.

In this study, Eby and colleagues dug into decades of data to study changes in bat behavior that were related to the Hendra virus. Data on bat roosting sites, local climate, food supplies, and habitat loss were used to map the timing and location of these events.

The number of roosts tripled and 40 spillovers were detected as a result of the rapid change in bat behavior.

The researchers used a statistical model to show how climate and land use changes drive bats to live in agricultural and urban areas.

Almost a third of natural fruit bat habitat was cleared in 1996 and most of the spillover happened in agricultural areas.

El Nio events caused winter food shortages for bats, which led to an increase in roosts close to human-populated areas.

Bats are thrust into areas where humans and horses live because of food shortages and habitat loss, and past research shows that stress can lead to increased bat deaths.

The timing of Hendra virus spillover clusters in winter may be due to the cumulative effects of high energy requirements in winter and the scarcity of resources.

When nearby native forests flowered profusely in winter, the bats reverted to their usual nomadic lifestyle, vacating urban and agricultural areas in favor of their natural habitat.

A long-term strategy to reduce spillover and protect the health of livestock and humans could be achieved by protecting remnants of native forests.

It is possible to produce a study like this in other areas where zoonotic diseases are common.

There isn't a lot of long-term data on bat hosts. Humans consistently destroy habitats and bulldozing biodiversity, even with our data.

According to a 2020 analysis of around 6,800 ecological communities on 6 continents, the animals that survive and thrive, such as bats and rats, are also the ones more likely to host potentially dangerous pathogens.

Kate Jones, an ecological modeler at University College London who co-authored that study, told Nature that they had been warning about this for a long time.

Nobody paid much attention.

The study was published in Nature as well.