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New Delhi, February 6
Climate change may have influenced the outbreaks of the novel coronavirus as well as the 2002-03 SARS pandemic virus, suggests a new study which claims the global crisis triggered by the release of greenhouse gases has likely altered the distribution of species of bats that carry these pathogens.
The study, published in the journal Science of The Total Environment, noted that Yunnan province in southern China and the neighboring regions of Myanmar and Laos form a global hotspot of increasing wealth for people. bats due to climate change.
According to scientists, including those at the University of Cambridge in the UK, this region coincides with the probable origin of the ancestors of the two viruses transmitted by bats – SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2. Based on previous studies, the researchers said the number of coronavirus virus families present in an area strongly correlates with the richness of local bat species. As species richness increases, they said there may be an increased likelihood that a coronavirus (CoV) with properties potentially harmful to human life is “present, transmitted or evolving in the region” .
“Species richness, in turn, is affected by climate change, which drives the geographic distribution of species by altering the suitability of ecological habitats, forcing species to disappear from certain areas while allowing them to expand into others, ”the scientists wrote in the study. . In the study, the researchers estimated the impact of climate change on the global richness of bat species over the past century. They said a global hotspot of increasing bat wealth due to climate change in the region may have been the likely origin of the ancestors of the novel coronavirus and the SARS virus, transmitted by bats. -mouse.
“This provides a possible mechanistic link between climate change and the emergence of the two viruses,” the study notes. According to the scientists, the regions of Central Africa, several parcels scattered throughout Central and South America, and “notably a large space group located in the Yunnan province of southern China and in the neighboring regions of Myanmar and Laos” have seen a significant increase in the richness of bat species due to range changes due to climate change over the past century. They said that in parts of Myanmar and Laos, there has been an estimated increase of around 40 species of bats due to climate change.
Scientists said this corresponds to an increase in the local number of bat-transmitted coronaviruses of around 100 viruses, given that each bat species carries around 2.67 CoV in average. Given the possibility raised by our analysis that global greenhouse gas emissions may have been a contributing factor to the SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks, we echo the calls for decisive mitigation of climate change, including in the context of Covid-19 economic recovery programs, ”they wrote in the study.
However, the scientists clarified that future research applying alternative models of vegetation change and species distribution is needed to confirm the model suggested in the study. Commenting on the results, Paul Valdes, professor of physical geography at the University of Bristol in the UK, said that “habitat loss may have played a much larger role in changing biodiversity than any small effect of climate change and that’s not built into their model. ”
Valdes, who was not involved in the study, believes it is premature to conclude from available data that climate change has influenced the emergence of the new coronavirus. Kate Jones, professor of ecology and biodiversity at University College London, UK, agrees. According to Jones, the risk of new viruses jumping from animals is a complex interplay of not only ecological hazard, but also human exposure and vulnerability.
“The increase in human populations, human movements and the degradation of natural environments through agricultural expansion may have a greater role to play in understanding the process of spreading SARS-CoV-2”, a- she added. Another scientist, Matthew Struebig, who was also not involved in the study, said in a statement that while the approach used in the analysis is “interesting”, the data on the distribution of bald species mice used in the analysis are “patchy at best” and “not ideal”. Struebig, which is affiliated with the University of Kent in the UK, said in a statement that “the evidence really needs to be further substantiated.”
He believes the study has “too many assumptions” to conclude that climate change has increased the likelihood of emergence of the two pandemic viruses. PTI
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