The COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged communities worldwide, causing untold suffering and death, while severely damaging economies. In a new study published in The Lancet Planetary Health, Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) experts and the Wildlife Conservation Society analyze how future surges in illness and deaths, as well as their economic implications, can be prevented.
According to Steve Osofsky, D.V.M. ’89, Jay Hyman Professor of Wildlife Health & Health Policy and lead author of the paper, focusing resources solely on addressing pandemics once they have already been unleashed is naive. Instead, the co-authors look at the interface between humans and wildlife, where dangerous viruses can be transmitted when people eat the body parts of wild animals, capture and mix wild species together in markets for sale, and expand activities into what is left of Earth’s wilderness.
The SARS outbreak in 2003 and the COVID-19 pandemic can both be traced back to bat viruses. In fact, bats are known reservoirs for a variety of viruses that can infect other species, including rabies, Marburg filoviruses, Hendra and Nipah paramyxoviruses, coronaviruses such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), and quite likely the Ebola family of viruses.
The authors argue that one solution to prevent future pandemics might lie in a global taboo against harming or disturbing bats and their habitats. While many rural communities rely on wild meat, bats are one taxonomic group that does not appear to be critical to most consumers’ nutritional or food security needs and could thus potentially be omitted from the human diet with minimal costs or inconvenience to most of the world’s population.
However, the authors recognize the need to mitigate any socioeconomic or cultural burdens that voluntary changes in behavior would cause, as most, but not all, of the identified bat-related activities of concern occur in low-income and middle-income countries. They also call for wealthier countries to provide logical forms of compensation.
Allowing bats to survive and thrive by letting them exist undisturbed in their habitats can pay other dividends around the world. Ecosystem services provided by bats, from controlling mosquitos and other harmful insects to pollinating crops, are worth billions of dollars annually.
The authors emphasize that the key is not to fear, chase away, or cull bats. Dispersing the animals only increases the odds of zoonotic spillover. Instead, it is important to stop hunting, eating, and trading bats, stay out of their caves, keep livestock away from areas where bats are concentrated, and stop deforesting, degrading, or even start restoring their natural habitats.
In conclusion, preventing pandemics at the source is the most equitable way to benefit all of humanity. The authors argue that getting people to work collaboratively on a global scale underpins most of the existential challenges faced, from climate change to environmental pollution to biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse to averting nuclear war.
