Fruit bats get swabbed to look for diseases that could jump to humans

2 years ago 91

Researchers are investigating effect bats successful the Republic of the Congo for viruses specified arsenic Ebola to larn much astir the risks of diseases spreading to humans

Life 25 January 2023

By Madeleine Cuff

A effect bat is swabbed to trial for viruses

Fruit bats successful the Republic of the Congo are being tested for zoonotic diseases including Ebola, successful an effort by conservationists and aesculapian researchers to amended recognize the hazard posed by the unrecorded commercialized of effect bats and the depletion of bat nutrient successful the country.

Blood samples and chemoreceptor and pharynx swabs were collected from astir 100 effect bats adjacent the Congolese superior Brazzaville this month, by researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the Congolese Foundation for Medical Research.

The probe squad sourced the bats from hunters who usually merchantability their catches successful bushmeat markets astir the city. None of the bats person truthful acold tested affirmative for Ebola viruses, though effect bats are known to harbour the the viruses and to person antibodies to the disease.

Multiple outbreaks of Ebola person been confirmed crossed West and Central Africa implicit the past 20 years, with Uganda, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo among the countries worst affected.

Ebola is simply a zoonotic disease, meaning it jumps from carnal to quality hosts. The bid of transmission is inactive not clear, but scientists fishy archetypal outbreaks hap aft a idiosyncratic comes into interaction with an infected animal, specified arsenic a monkey oregon effect bat.

Researchers anticipation the effect bat investigating programme volition assistance them to pinpoint however Ebola is spreading, including whether the commercialized of bushmeat is involved. Since 2012, WCS has tested much than 1200 effect bats crossed Congo for pathogens with zoonotic potential.

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