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Scientists say bats in Thailand could spread other coronaviruses related to SARS-CoV-2, or COVID-19, joining what are believed to be many other bats doing the same in Asia. The revelation comes after scientists found bats at a wildlife sanctuary in eastern Thailand with a virus that closely resembles the virus that causes Covid-19.
The team that discovered bats with the virus in Thailand is led by Lin-Fa Wang of the Duke-NUS School of Medicine in Singapore. The virus found is called RacCS203 and it is more than 91% similar to the Covid-19 virus in terms of genomes.
It is also closely related to another coronavirus, RmYN02, which is found in bats in Yunnan, China, as their genomes show a 93.6% match with Covid-19.
“We need to do more surveillance on animals. To find the true origin, surveillance work must go beyond the border of China. “
A major concern is the ability of these coronaviruses to move between different mammals, as scientists still attribute the Covid-19 outbreak to the virus being transferred from bats to a secondary host and then to humans. But the bats in Thailand at the wildlife sanctuary feed on insects, and the sanctuary workers have told visitors not to worry about the flying creatures.
However, bats that eat insects can spread deadly diseases, and according to a New York Times article, a virologist says horseshoe bats may be to blame for the current Covid-19 virus. Horseshoe bats are indeed found in caves in Thailand and are also insect eaters.
The discovery of the possible connection between horseshoe bats and the coronavirus linked to Covid-19 led Dr. Supaporn Watcharaprueksadee, deputy director of the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases of Thailand and a specialist in bat-borne viruses, to investigate whether bats are in Thailand, may share a similar virus.
Infectious diseases such as SARS, MERS, Hendra, Ebola, and Nipah are believed to have arisen from bats, so research on Asian bats is even more necessary.
SOURCE: BBC news
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