Coronavirus causing, the dreaded Covid19 may have been
around for decades among bats. The closest known predecessor of the virus existed
in bats 40-70 years ago, researchers from the University of Glasgow noted in a
recent research.
The coronavirus developed potential for a human crossover
for some time, the scientists said.
According to the researchers, the study posed questions on claims that the virus was created in a lab.
Prof David Robertson of the University of Glasgow, worked on
the study, published in the journal Nature Microbiology.
“That suggests that these viruses with the potential to
emerge in humans have been around for some time,” Robertson said.
“We really do need to understand where or how the virus has
crossed into the human population. If we now believe there is this generalist
virus circulating in bats, we need to get better at monitoring that.
The professor holds that there is a need to keep an eye on
the future forms of the disease in order to prevent the pandemic from re-emerging.
“If these viruses have been around for decades that means that they’ve had lots of opportunities to find new host species,” he said.
The researchers compared the genetic structure of Sars-CoV-2 with its close relative found in bats, a virus known as RaTG13.
They then concluded that both the relatives emerged from the same ancestor, but evolved over time.
Bats are found across the world and can migrate long
distances.
Scientists had earlier fingered snakes and pangolins as hosts
that transmitted the coronavirus to people and caused the ongoing COVID-19
pandemic.
However, the bat has come up in more research than any other
species as the host. It is widely believed that the virus may have spread
widely among species through improper handling during illegal trafficking.
A zoo in Wales, Britain is threatening to put down its animals because it is running out of money to feed the exotic breeds amid the coronavirus lockdown.
Tracy and Dean Tweedy, who own Borth Wild Animal Kingdom in West Wales, fear they only have enough money to feed more than 300 animals for a week.
The married couple say their money is running out to care for their stock and are planning ‘as a last resort’ to euthanise ‘the animals that we care for’.
Council chiefs ‘lost confidence’ in the ability of the zoo to operate safely following the deaths of two lynx and other animals.
In January this year, the zoo was ordered to close because it did not have trained gunmen in case of an animal escape.
it costs £3,000 a week to run the zoo and a cull of the animals has been considered if they cannot be fed.
But it was allowed to reopen in February before having to close again in March due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Ms Tweedy, 49, said many staff are on furlough and the zoo’s business relief grant of £25,000 has nearly run out.
She said: ‘We were already only scraping by financially after the long, quiet winter season.
‘We need help now more than ever. Despite everything, we are as determined as ever to not give up.’
She said it costs £3,000 a week to run the zoo and a cull of the animals has been considered if they cannot be fed.
After the money runs out, the couple will have to start looking at re-homing but are considering euthanasia as a last resort.
Problems for the zoo began in late 2017 when Lilleth the Eurasian lynx escaped and was shot dead by a marksman after being found at a nearby caravan site.
A second lynx, Nilly, also died in what was described as a ‘handling error’.
A report revealed one in five of the zoo’s animals died in just one year. It was discovered that monkeys, crocodiles and a leopard also died from its animal stock during 2018.
Owner Tracy and Dean bought the zoo for £625,000 in 2016 to start a dream new life with their family, but it has since turned into a nightmare.
Tracey said: ‘It would be tragic if mid Wales lost its only zoo. We work with so many local organisations on animal education and wildlife conservation that we see ourselves as a vital asset for the community.’
Tracy said many of the animals would be very hard to re-home due to licence requirements needed to look after the exotic animals.
‘We also run as a sanctuary for animals that have been rescued from the exotic pet trade. For many of these animals, we are a last resort.
‘They came here because destruction was their only alternative.
‘They would be very difficult to re-home as the licence requirements to look after these animals and provide the proper care, can be very involved and expensive,’ she said.
The couple say Westminster has announced a fund to help zoos in England but there is no similar support in Wales.
The Welsh government said it had already provided all licensed zoos with details of existing support schemes.
‘If any zoo operators have concerns about their ability to meet the needs of their animals, they should contact their local authority’s animal health team for advice without delay as they are on hand to offer support,’ a spokeswoman said.
It said its £500m economic resilience fund provided more generous support than one specifically for zoos would have.
A spokesman for Ceredigion County Council earlier said: ‘The local authority has lost confidence in the ability of the zoo to operate responsibly and safely.’
Zoos were forced to close at the end of March due to the coronavirus lockdown and many have warned their futures are in danger from the impact of the pandemic.
Andrew RT Davies, Shadow Minister for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the Welsh Parliament, said: ‘This is a dire situation that the zoo finds itself in, but I’m afraid that zoos right across Wales are in the same precarious situation and desperately need support due to the profound impact of Covid-19.
‘It’s outrageous that whilst the UK Government has taken action and given £14 million to support zoos in England the Welsh Government has still not followed suit.
Conservation experts have called for the suspension of all great ape tourism to protect the species from Covid19. They have also called for other protective measures for the great apes.
The experts recommend that innovative measures are needed to reduce the risk of wild gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans from encountering the virus.
SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus responsible for the current COVID-19 pandemic, is also a threat to our closest living relatives, the great apes, conservationists reveal in a letter in Nature.
“As leading experts in the conservation and health of these animals, we urge governments, conservation practitioners, researchers, tourism professionals and funding agencies to reduce the risk of introducing the virus into these endangered apes,” the letter co-author by Thomas Gillespie, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, and Fabian Leendertz, Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany.
“They can do this by applying the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s best-practice guidelines for health monitoring and disease control in great-ape populations.”
It is yet unknown if morbidity and mortality associated with SARS-CoV-2 in humans are similar in apes. However, transmission of even mild human pathogens to apes can have severe negative effects on the apes.
The Conservator General, National Park Service, Ibrahim Goni, has said Nigerians must have behavioural change towards wildlife to curb avoidable diseases in our country.
The Conservator General gave the charge on Tuesday, while underlining the dangers posed by hunting, eating and trading in, wildlife, and also warned about using wild animals as pets.
“We got reports that people still eat and sell various species of dead monkeys, cats, and birds such as bats, as well as pangolins suspected to be at the center of COVID-19.
“Pangolin, the world’s most trafficked mammal is believed to have possibly been a vector in the leap of the novel coronavirus from animal to human at a market in China’s Wuhan city last year.
“They are commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine, although scientists say they have no therapeutic value, he said.
The CG said that this pandemic should make hunters of wildlife to consider the health not just of humans, but of animals and the environment, to avert future crises.
“Due to hunting, eating and trading in wildlife, the world has seen the emergence of all sorts of animal- borne infectious diseases such as SARS, Ebola, Lassa Fever, and now, COVID-19.
“At our parks we have experts who handle these animals in hygienic ways to avoid direct human contact that can become breeding grounds for existing and emerging infectious diseases.
He said that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc globally and Nigeria is not left out and wondered why some people still engage in a trade that supposedly brought the new disease upon mankind.
“One of the frightening realities of this trade is the threat that it poses to the health of human beings, through the spread of diseases from animals to human beings.
“Wildlife belongs to the wild and therefore should be left in the wild, Goni said.
He called for a paradigm shift in behavior of the public towards Nigeria’s Environmental Laws and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
He added that 75 percent of emerging infectious diseases are linked to wildlife and that underscored the mutually-effective relationship between human beings and nature.
“It is important we understand the links between habitat and environmental damage and the coronavirus.
“The destruction of ecosystems makes disease outbreaks, including pandemics, more likely and now the destruction of nature is the underlying crisis behind the coronavirus crisis.
“Our Wildlife is increasingly going into extinction and its trade puts ecosystems at risk.
He said the Service will continue to create awareness on the impact of hunting and trading on biodiversity and the risks that it poses to human health.
“We urge those involved in wildlife trade to stop the killing and eating of wildlife, for their own good.
“Wild animals belong in the wild and are not pets and should be handled by professionals,’’ he warned.
“This is the first time that any of us know of anywhere in the world that a person infected the animal and the animal got sick,” Paul Calle, the chief veterinarian at the zoo, told Reuters news agency on Sunday.
There have been isolated instances of pets testing positive for the coronavirus elsewhere in the world, but experts have stressed there is no evidence they can become sick or spread the disease. Calle said he intends to share the findings with other zoos and institutions researching the transmission of Covid-19.
“We tested the cat [Nadia] out of an abundance of caution and will ensure any knowledge we gain about Covid-19 will contribute to the world’s continuing understanding of this novel coronavirus,” the zoo said in a statement.
Nadia, her sister Azul, as well as two Amur tigers and three African lions who showed symptoms, are all expected to make a full recovery, the zoo said.
The big cats did have some decrease in appetite but “are otherwise doing well under veterinary care and are bright, alert, and interactive with their keepers”, it said.
The zoo said it is not known how the virus will develop in animals like tigers and lions since various species can react differently to new infections, but all the animals will be closely monitored.
None of the zoo’s other big cats – four other tigers, snow leopards, cheetahs, a clouded leopard, an Amur leopard, a puma and a serval – are showing any signs of illness.
“Our cats were infected by a person caring for them who was asymptomatically infected with the virus or before that person developed symptoms,” said the zoo.
All the tigers showing symptoms were housed in the zoo’s Tiger Mountain area. It is unclear if the others will be tested.
All four zoos run by the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York City, including the Bronx Zoo, have been closed to the public since 16 March. New measures will now be put in place to protect the animals and their caretakers at all the facilities.
Even though a couple of companion cats and dogs have tested positive to the disease in Hong Kong, the is no known case of animals transmission to humans yet.
The world’s most illegally trafficked mammal, the pangolin has been found to carry viruses closely related to the novel coronavirus currently spreading globally.
According to scientists, the sale of pangolins in wildlife markets should be strictly prohibited to minimise the risk of future outbreaks.
Pangolins are illegally trafficked both as food and in traditional medicine. The animals’ scales and meat are erroneously believed to be cures for numerous diseases including sexual dysfunction.
A research published in the journal Nature, emphasised that these animals should always be handled with caution.
The research also recommended that surveillance of wild pangolins is needed to understand their role in the risk of future transmission of the virus to humans.
Lead researcher innthe study, Dr Tommy Lam of The University of Hong Kong said two groups of coronaviruses related to the virus behind the human pandemic have been identified in Malayan pangolins smuggled into China.
“Although their role as the intermediate host of the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak remains to be confirmed, sale of these wild animals in wet markets should be strictly prohibited to avoid future zoonotic [animal to human] transmission,” he said.
Bats also contain coronaviruses, which are closer still to the human virus, except in one key area – the part that helps the virus invade cells.
“This tells us that viruses that look pretty adapted to humans are present in wildlife,” said co-researcher, Prof Edward Holmes of the University of Sydney. “Bats are certainly involved, pangolins may be, but it is very possible that other animal species are involved as well.”
The bat has been implicated in the recent spread of the Covid19 causing viruses. However, it is yet to be determined how the transmission occurred and the role of the pangolins or other wild animals in the spread of the novel coronavirus disease.
The National Park Service has suspended some of its activities, including group visits and overnight stay at the seven parks across the nation.
Dr Ibrahim Goni, the Conservator- General, National Park Service, said this in a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Media, Mr Yakubu Zull, in Abuja on Tuesday.
Goni said that in view of the reality of COVID-19 in the country, and in order to take further preventive steps, all Conservators of Parks (CPs) were to follow all the directives of the Federal Government.
“The National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has continued to issue advisories to stem the spread of the disease which has no known cure.
“They have also recommended the cessation of all gathering in excess of 50 people because of the risks it poses.
“Therefore, the CPs has been directed to suspend all group bookings and visits and ensure no overnight stay by visitors; all visitors must be screened.
“There will be no Easter celebrations or gatherings inside the parks and no parties of any sort, weddings etc,” he said.
However, he noted that the service would continue its operations but as much as possible, efforts would be made to ensure that crowds coming to the parks would not exceed the recommended number.
Goni said the service would take all necessary steps to ensure the safety of visitors in its jurisdiction in view of the risk such large gatherings posed.
“This is a matter of grave concern to the entire National Park Service Management so we have provided test kits, sanitizes, soap and water for maintenance of proper hygiene,’’ he added.
The C-G called on all park visitors to comply with all the rules and cooperate with service staff to help curtail the spread of the virus.
He said all guidelines must be followed to ensure concerted and coordinated efforts in the prevention of the spread of this disease.
“As you are aware, the COVID-19 and its spread in Nigeria has become a source of concern to all.
“We, therefore, insist that all our visitors must submit themselves to the precautionary measures put in place at the parks”.
Goni advised the parks visitors and intending visitors to observe the general recommendations from the World Health Organisation (WHO).
“They include frequent washing of hands with soap and water, avoid touching of eyes, mouth, and nose, cover your mouth and nose with your bent elbow or tissue when you cough or sneeze.
“Stay more than 1 meter (3 feet) away from a person who is sick and follow proper food hygiene practices.’’
He said that the global pandemic had affected every aspect of the nation including the service’s ability to carry out its programmes.
“As the situation unfolds, our top priority is everyone’s safety, and so we are in the process of making key alterations to how we work.
“I want to assure you that we are determined to do our best to help the Federal Government preserve lives and restore normalcy within the shortest possible time,” he promised.
