Unless We Change Our Relationship with Wildlife, We will Experience another Pandemic, Scientists Warned!

Like other outbreaks, the Covid-19 pandemic that is affecting over a million people started from an animal.

Scientists are of the view that bats hosted the virus, as was the case with SARS, Ebola, MERS, and other infections like Marburg and Nipah. Decades ago, humans also contracted HIV from a chimpanzee while wild birds spread Influenza-A through pigs. In West Africa, Lassa fever emerged from rodents.

However, scientists studying zoonotic diseases from animals to humans claimed the problem comes from humans, not animals.

Always, wild animals carry different viruses. However, activities like wildlife trade, deforestation, agricultural intensification, and urbanization bring animals closer to us. Often, the virus spread fails, while a few succeed. Few cases like SARS-CoV-2 spread with the densely packed human population that can transport pathogens like wildfire in hours.

Currently, we all are battling with an extraordinary economic and health crisis. And disease researchers suggest we treat animals’ health and habitat with care, as the Coronavirus pandemic is a deadly warning.

Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance and a disease ecologist, mentioned, “Generally, the pandemic rates are increasing.” “it is not by supernatural reasons, but by our actions on the environment. We need to be cautious of our steps and take more careful steps.”

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About 70% of emerging human diseases and about 1.7 million undiscovered viruses are from wildlife. Researchers are currently watching out for the next zoonotic-rooted infectious diseases. These outbreaks, however, are connected to the human population, plant and animal diversity, and sudden environmental changes.

They also house most of the likeliest zoonotic disease hosts, like bats and rodents. Almost 50% of mammal species are rodents, with about ¼ being bats. Bats also make about 50% of mammals in biodiverse tropical areas. Yes, they help to eat pests and pollinate but also carry viruses around. Thomas Gillespie, a disease environmentalist at Emory University, said,” Bats have an incredible immune system that allows them to send millions of pathogens” “these pathogens don’t affect them, but will affect whoever gets it from them.”

Surprisingly, we make it easier to contract zoonotic viruses.

It is thought that a horseshoe bat Coronavirus leaped in china, where animals are commercially traded, late last year.

In Wuhan, at a “wet market” linked to first Coronavirus cases, each store had at least one creature sold for consumption. According to experts, such markets facilitate viral outbreaks with ill, stressed animals in cages, butchering, and body fluids sprinkling around.

Horseshoe bats are hunted for food in China, but it is difficult, tracing the bat virus to infections amongst people. The first cluster of cases was traced to the expansive animal market. But it was closed and disinfected before researchers could determine implicated animals.

Besides, it probably was not the spillover location precisely, which could have occurred weeks before, possibly in November. Some of the initial cases weren’t connected to the animal market.

The new virus is not traceable to any known bat virus. But, it mutated in at least an intermediary between human beings and bats, probably the endangered pangolin. According to scientists, this mammal is traded heavily for its scales.

The 2003 SARS outbreak was traced to scientists who contracted it through wet caves lined with bat guano. It was linked to horseshoe bats and also traceable to wild animal markets. It is the assumption of scientists that Coronavirus jumped to masked palm civets from bats to humans.

Chris Walzer, the Wildlife Conservation Society’s global health program executive director, spoke to reporters on Thursday. He mentioned that one critical factor for the spillover occurrences is the markets and international wildlife trade.

The decreasing population of large mammals in Africa has shifted the attention to smaller species like bats and rodents. Some are consumed for traditional and subsistence purposes, while the sales of exotic meats are enormous in the economies of megacities.

The risk here is not from the meat travels, but the higher hunting pressure and contact rate from hunters.

Another risk is the international trade of pets like fish and reptiles. They usually aren’t tested for pathogens that can infect humans, according to Daszak. And, as Gillespie said, the same applies to large animal-packed farms.

He added, “Chicken and pig production also comes to mind whenever I think of the primary risk factor.”

However, researchers say that keeping animals are not the only facilitators of spillovers. Humans always share space with and affect wildlife too.

For example, the bacteria-caused Lyme disease spreads faster in the eastern United States. There, the forests are with fewer trees and predators like opossums and foxes that feed on certain mice species. According to studies, these mice carry Lyme-spreading ticks. Leendertz, a veterinarian, also added that building brings people closer to some wildlife creatures.

One example is the 1998 Nipah virus emergence in Malaysia that killed hundreds of people in Asia. The outbreak was fueled by environmental change and the dispersion of fruit bats by deforestation. The bats ended up in pig farms with fruit trees, where they infected the pigs with their droppings. The pigs then transferred the infection to the nearby farms and industry workers.

Leendertz added that we should consider this factor anywhere we establish new interfaces. Such behavior will force wildlife out for new food sources and better ways to infect us,” he added.

The human population is increasing, so is our relationship with animals. We should prevent spillovers by changing our attitude, but not by killing bats.

With other groups, the Wildlife Conservation Society has asked countries to stop trading wild animals for food. The top infectious-diseases expert of the nation, Anthony S. Fauci, said that the world community should pressure China and other countries to stop such markets.

After the SARS outbreak, China briefly stopped trading civets and announced a ban on the sales of wild animals in January. But, it will last only till the Coronavirus issue dies down.

However, many don’t agree, claiming that bans can cause the secret market to go on. Daszak also noticed that Westerners consume wild animals like deer. So, wild animal trade should be regulated with intensive testing instead.

Improved surveillance for wild animal illnesses is essential, Leendertz said. Besides, building in wild habitats can facilitate health crises, Gillespie added.

According to many researchers, the Coronavirus pandemic is a need for a strict “one-health” approach. This approach connects human health with animal and environmental factors.

Kate Jones, the chairperson of ecology and biodiversity at University College, London, added: “We should change our behavioral culture towards animals.” “We should understand the risks we are exposed to and keep our ecosystem safe for long-term intentions,” she added.