As part of the Corona Virus pandemic research, scientists are returning to an area where a virus very similar to this one was discovered in bats a decade ago in order to gather samples from bats in STUNG TRENG, Cambodia.
An Institut Pasteur du Cambodge (IPC) freezer in Phnom Penh has two horseshoe bat samples that were taken that year and stored in Stung Treng Province near Lao PDR.
The coronavirus, which has killed more than 4.6 million people globally, has a near relative in these people, according to tests conducted last year.
For the last week, an IPC research team of eight has been collecting bat samples and recording their species, sex, age, and other information. The Philippines is home to similar studies.
While holding a net to collect bats, field coordinator Thavry Hoem told Reuters, "We believe that the results from this study may enable the world to have a better knowledge of COVID-19.
Host species like bats usually don't show any symptoms of infections, but if they're passed on to people or other animals, it may be disastrous.
Dr. Veasna Duong, the IPC's head of virology, said his institute has made four excursions to the area in the last two years in search of information regarding the virus's ancestry and evolution.
"We want to know if the virus is still there and how it has developed" he told Reuters.
Other deadly coronaviruses like Ebola and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) also originate from bats, including Ebola and these viruses (MERS).
Human intervention and habitat degradation, according to Veasna Duong, is to blame for the havoc wrought by COVID-19.
"If we attempt to be near animals, the odds of catching the virus carried by wildlife are higher than normal, and the possibilities of the virus changing to infect people are also higher" he added.
Julia Guillebaud, an IPC virology research engineer and co-investigator on the French-funded initiative, said the investigation will also examine if wildlife commerce is contributing.
"(The project) seeks to offer new knowledge on the wild meat trade networks in Cambodia, record the diversity of betacoronaviruses flowing across these chains, and create a flexible and integrated early-detection system of viral spill-over occurrences" Gillebaud stated. —Reuters
SOURCE: GMA News Online
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