August 29-30 was international bat weekend, with Aug 29 being international bat night.The Bat Conservation Trust were holding a bat fest -
After a heatwave earlier in August it had turned cold, grey and wet, 15 C in London.
Showing posts with label bats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bats. Show all posts
August 30, 2020
International bat weekend
April 17, 2020
Bat Appreciation Day
Having blogged about bats and viruses earlier this week, I then found out that April 17th is Bat Appreciation Day. I'd never heard of this, I think it is an American thing that started in 2015. However I found a link to a UK site for bat appreciation day, on WinCalendar. It says :
"Bat Appreciation Day aims to raise awareness of the critical role that bats have on our ecosystem. Bats have faced scrutiny due to their appearance and how they are portrayed in the media. However, they are actually beneficial to agriculture as they pollinate plants and eat insects. This provides the benefit of being able to use less pesticides on their crops."
"Bat Appreciation Day aims to raise awareness of the critical role that bats have on our ecosystem. Bats have faced scrutiny due to their appearance and how they are portrayed in the media. However, they are actually beneficial to agriculture as they pollinate plants and eat insects. This provides the benefit of being able to use less pesticides on their crops."
April 15, 2020
Bats and viruses
For centuries bats have had a bad reputation amongst the general public. They are portrayed negatively in folklore as well as real life. I wrote about this in 2008, "Batty friends in need of our protection".
Bats are also said to be carriers of viruses that can be passed to humans. See my website for more about bats and viruses. In 1998 bats were linked to the Nipah virus in Malaysia. Then in 2002 bats were linked to the SARS outbreak. The latest one is the coronavirus pandemic.
The coronavirus Covid 19 hit the world at the start of 2020. It started in Wuhan in China in Dec 2019. The virus was first reported in a live animal market. It was suggested that bats from a nearby cave might have been the cause, then this idea was squashed. Then in mid April a report suggested that "Stray dogs eating bat meat may have started pandemic". The Sky news report on 15 April wrote that a professor in "University of Ottawa's biology department, has suggested that stray dogs are the most likely intermediate host for the transmission of Sars-CoV-2 into humans. According to the study, the ancestor of the new coronavirus and its nearest relative - a bat coronavirus - infected the intestines of dogs. They then evolved before moving to humans." But scientists elsewhere are unconvinced.
Other reports again suggest the bats from Wuhan area are to blame. "Wuhan lab ‘experimented on bats from cave where coronavirus may have originated’ ", Metro 12 April and similar articles appeared in other media. Bats were caught in caves in Yunnan, about 1000 miles from Wuhan.
The Daily Mail 12 April suggests the "U.S. government gave $3.7million grant to Wuhan lab at center of coronavirus leak scrutiny that was performing experiments on bats from the caves where the disease is believed to have originated".
A 54 min documentary video on youtube that blames the Chinese Communist Party for the virus, from Epoch Times.
However it is still unclear whether scientists are to blame, or if the virus made the jump directly to humans, possibly by bats for sale in the market.
It is still very early days to know anything definite!
--
See more on Bat Conservation International .
--
An interesting article on CNN "The virus hunters who search bat caves to predict the next pandemic" on 27 April 2020. It describes how scientists capture bats each evening outside caves in China's Yunnan province. Blood is taken from the bats, oral and faecal swabs are taken and droppings collected. The scientists are testing for new pathogens. The organisation Predict, operates in 31 countries and are focusing on China, Myanmar and Kenya.
Bats are also said to be carriers of viruses that can be passed to humans. See my website for more about bats and viruses. In 1998 bats were linked to the Nipah virus in Malaysia. Then in 2002 bats were linked to the SARS outbreak. The latest one is the coronavirus pandemic.
The coronavirus Covid 19 hit the world at the start of 2020. It started in Wuhan in China in Dec 2019. The virus was first reported in a live animal market. It was suggested that bats from a nearby cave might have been the cause, then this idea was squashed. Then in mid April a report suggested that "Stray dogs eating bat meat may have started pandemic". The Sky news report on 15 April wrote that a professor in "University of Ottawa's biology department, has suggested that stray dogs are the most likely intermediate host for the transmission of Sars-CoV-2 into humans. According to the study, the ancestor of the new coronavirus and its nearest relative - a bat coronavirus - infected the intestines of dogs. They then evolved before moving to humans." But scientists elsewhere are unconvinced.
Other reports again suggest the bats from Wuhan area are to blame. "Wuhan lab ‘experimented on bats from cave where coronavirus may have originated’ ", Metro 12 April and similar articles appeared in other media. Bats were caught in caves in Yunnan, about 1000 miles from Wuhan.
The Daily Mail 12 April suggests the "U.S. government gave $3.7million grant to Wuhan lab at center of coronavirus leak scrutiny that was performing experiments on bats from the caves where the disease is believed to have originated".
A 54 min documentary video on youtube that blames the Chinese Communist Party for the virus, from Epoch Times.
However it is still unclear whether scientists are to blame, or if the virus made the jump directly to humans, possibly by bats for sale in the market.
It is still very early days to know anything definite!
--
See more on Bat Conservation International .
--
An interesting article on CNN "The virus hunters who search bat caves to predict the next pandemic" on 27 April 2020. It describes how scientists capture bats each evening outside caves in China's Yunnan province. Blood is taken from the bats, oral and faecal swabs are taken and droppings collected. The scientists are testing for new pathogens. The organisation Predict, operates in 31 countries and are focusing on China, Myanmar and Kenya.
December 2, 2017
Bats and SARS in China
In 2002-2003 an outbreak of SARS killed almost 800 people around the world. The virus, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a pneumonia-like illness and was first noticed in Guangdong province, southeastern China.
Scientists found genetically similar viruses in masked palm civets (Paguma larvata) sold in Guangdong’s animal markets. It was later found that similar viruses were in horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus) in China. It was thought the deadly strain probably originated in the bats, and later passed through civets before reaching humans.
This led to sampling horseshoe bats around China. In a cave in Yunnan, scientists found a strain of the virus similar to the human version. They then spent five years monitoring the bats that lived there, collecting fresh guano and taking anal swabs.
After a lot of research virologists have shown that this single population of horseshoe bats harbours virus strains with all the genetic building blocks of the one that jumped to humans in 2002. They published the news in Nov 2017.
This leads to questions. How can a virus from bats in Yunnan travel to animals and humans around 1,000 kilometres away in Guangdong, without causing any suspected cases in Yunnan itself. Also can
the human SARS strain jump from bats to another animal, such as a civet.
The scientists have to continue their search for other bat populations that carry the same strain of virus.
In the meantime there is the worry that the deadly outbreak could reappear. The cave with the affected bats is only 1 km from a village.
The Chinese authorities have closed many markets selling animals in China since the outbreaks of SARS and other infectious diseases. I really wonder if this is effective, or enforced.
See my blogs on bushmeat in Laos :
Laos markets
Laos bushmeat,
Luang Prabang market
These photos were all taken in northern Laos in 2007 and 2008, relatively close to the Chinese border and Yunnan!
See the main article on bats and SARS in Nature 1 Dec 2017, "Bat cave solves mystery of deadly SARS virus — and suggests new outbreak could occur".
Scientists found genetically similar viruses in masked palm civets (Paguma larvata) sold in Guangdong’s animal markets. It was later found that similar viruses were in horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus) in China. It was thought the deadly strain probably originated in the bats, and later passed through civets before reaching humans.
This led to sampling horseshoe bats around China. In a cave in Yunnan, scientists found a strain of the virus similar to the human version. They then spent five years monitoring the bats that lived there, collecting fresh guano and taking anal swabs.
After a lot of research virologists have shown that this single population of horseshoe bats harbours virus strains with all the genetic building blocks of the one that jumped to humans in 2002. They published the news in Nov 2017.
This leads to questions. How can a virus from bats in Yunnan travel to animals and humans around 1,000 kilometres away in Guangdong, without causing any suspected cases in Yunnan itself. Also can
the human SARS strain jump from bats to another animal, such as a civet.
The scientists have to continue their search for other bat populations that carry the same strain of virus.
In the meantime there is the worry that the deadly outbreak could reappear. The cave with the affected bats is only 1 km from a village.
The Chinese authorities have closed many markets selling animals in China since the outbreaks of SARS and other infectious diseases. I really wonder if this is effective, or enforced.
See my blogs on bushmeat in Laos :
Laos markets
Laos bushmeat,
Luang Prabang market
See the main article on bats and SARS in Nature 1 Dec 2017, "Bat cave solves mystery of deadly SARS virus — and suggests new outbreak could occur".
January 8, 2014
Conservationists save the Bracken Cave bats, Texas
Bracken Cave in Texas is quite famous as it the summer home to the world's largest bat colony. Millions of Mexican
free-tailed bats live in the cave from March through till October, making this one of the largest concentration of mammals on earth.
An estimated 10 million bats emerge from the cave each night. The cave is just north of San Antonio.
In recent months the cave has been threatened by a possible nearby development. A San Antonio developer proposed to build 3800 homes on 1,500 acres just south of the cave area. The cave and surrounding area is owned and protected by Bat Conservation International.
Now it looks as if the building developer has dropped the project.
Read more about the bats and cave on Bat Conservation International.
An estimated 10 million bats emerge from the cave each night. The cave is just north of San Antonio.
In recent months the cave has been threatened by a possible nearby development. A San Antonio developer proposed to build 3800 homes on 1,500 acres just south of the cave area. The cave and surrounding area is owned and protected by Bat Conservation International.
Now it looks as if the building developer has dropped the project.
Read more about the bats and cave on Bat Conservation International.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)