USFWS Recommends Suspending Bat Research

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has issued an advisory to bat researchers, recommending that scientists suspend some fieldwork involving capturing or handling bats in North America as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report by the Washington Post. The advisory was a result of concerns that researchers could transfer the novel coronavirus to bat populations in North America, thus creating a new reservoir for the disease. The COVID-19 causing virus, SARS-CoV-2, is thought to have originated in horseshoe bats in China. It may have then been passed to humans through an intermediate species. There have been recent reports of the virus transferring from humans to animals, such as cats. Scientists warned that although the chance of the coronavirus jumping from humans to North American bats is low, it could further threaten bat species already struggling with the fungal disease white-nose syndrome. Furthermore, the virus could then potentially spread through bat populations across the country and potentially cause a “spill-back of SARS-CoV-2 from bats back into humans … which would make eradication of SARS-CoV-2 unlikely,” warned USFWS Wildlife Veterinarian Samantha Gibbs. “We know that many mammals are susceptible to infection by a diversity of coronaviruses,” said a USFWS spokesperson. “What is not known is whether the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has the potential to infect, or cause illness in, North American wil...
Source: Public Policy Reports - Category: Biology Authors: Source Type: news