LOS BANOS, Philippines – Researchers wearing headlights and protective suits race to untie the claws and wings of bats caught in a large net after dark in the Philippine province of Laguna.
Tiny animals are carefully placed in cloth bags to be taken, measured and swabbed, with recorded details and saliva and feces collected for analysis before being returned to the wild.
Researchers call themselves “virus hunters” tasked with catching thousands of bats to develop a simulation model that they hope will help the world avoid a COVID-19-like pandemic that has killed nearly 2.8 million people. .
The Japan-funded model will be developed over the next three years by the University of the Philippines Los Banos, which hopes bats will help predict coronavirus dynamics by analyzing factors such as climate, temperature and ease of spread in humans, including.
“What we’re trying to look at are other coronavirus strains that have the potential to jump on humans,” said ecologist Phillip Alviola, the group’s leader, who has been studying bat viruses for more than a decade.
“If we know the virus itself and know where it comes from, we know how to isolate the geographic virus.”
Beyond laboratory work, the research requires long trips, which involve hours of dense rainforest and precarious night hikes on rocky mountains, tree roots, mud and moss.
The group also targets bat places in buildings, installing fog nets before dusk to catch bats and extract torchlight samples.
Each bat is constantly held by the head, while researchers insert small swabs into the mouth and record stretches of wings with plastic rulers, to try to see which of the more than 1,300 species and 20 families of bats are most susceptible to infections and why.
DEVASTATING IMPACT
Researchers wear protective suits, masks and gloves when in contact with bats as a precaution against catching viruses.
“It’s very scary these days,” said Edison Cosico, who is assisting Alviola. “You never know if the bat is already a carrier.
“What we are looking for is to find out if there are any more bat viruses that can be transmitted to humans. We will never know if the next one is the same as COVID. ”
Most of those captured are horseshoe bats known to harbor coronaviruses, including the closest known relative of the new coronavirus.
Horseshoe bats are listed in two of the World Health Organization experts’ investigations into the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19.
Host species, such as bats, usually show no symptoms of pathogens, although they can be devastating if transmitted to humans or other animals.
Deadly viruses that came from bats include Ebola and other coronaviruses, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).
Human exposure and closer interaction with wildlife have meant that the risk of disease transmission has now been higher than ever, said bat ecologist Kirk Taray.
“With reference data on the nature and occurrence of the potential zoonotic virus in bats, we can somehow predict possible outbreaks.”