Leave bats alone in their habitats for a pandemic-free future, says study

New Delhi, Jun 7 (PTI) Scientists make the case that pandemic prevention requires a global taboo or ban whereby mankind agreed to leave bats alone, to let them have the habitats they need, undisturbed, in a study published in the journal The Lancet Planetary Health.

The researchers from Cornell University, US, along with those from Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), US, say that while we may never know the exact means by which a bat virus, to which the COVID-19 pandemic and SARS coronavirus outbreak of 2003 can be traced, we do not need to know all of the details in order to act.

Bats are known to be a source of rabies, Marburg filoviruses, Hendra and Nipah paramyxoviruses, coronaviruses such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) Coronavirus, and fruit bats are strongly believed to be a source of Ebolaviruses.