Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – A study has found a number of viruses in bats in southern China. One of them is a virus similar to Covid-19 or SARS CoV-2.
The virus has the potential to infect humans and livestock. The study used 149 bats in Yunnan province as samples and found five viruses, including those related to SARS-CoV-2 and SARS.
“This means that a SARS-CoV-2-like virus is still circulating in Chinese bats and poses an emergency risk,” said Eddie Holmes, an evolutionary biologist and virologist at the University of Sydney and one of the report’s authors, Eddie Holmes. . Telegraph, Tuesday (29/11/2022).
The study’s findings suggest that bats may harbor many different species of viruses, said Jonathan Ball, a virologist at the University of Nottingham. The animal can also harbor viruses at the same time.
“Such co-infection, especially with related viruses such as the coronavirus, provides an opportunity for viruses to exchange important genetic information, which naturally gives rise to new variants,” he explained.
An earlier analysis revealed that around 400,000 people are infected with bat-borne viruses each year in southern China and Southeast Asia.
One of the viruses is BtSY2, which has characteristics of SARS. In 2003, the virus had killed 774 people and infected 8,000 in an outbreak.
BtSY2 binds to the receptor, which is part of the spike protein used to attach to human cells. This fact proves that the virus can also infect humans.
“This is as close as we get to a bat virus from Laos and the closest animal virus we’ve seen from China,” said Holmes.
Previously there was an analysis of the corona virus in the One Health Congress presentation in Singapore earlier this month. Some bat coronaviruses were revealed to have a common ancestor with SARS-CoV-2 in 2016.
(nb)
