bats | ABS-CBN News

Bat viruses found in Laos ‘closest known ancestors’ to pandemic strain

Simone McCarthy, South China Morning Post
Updated as of Sep 21 02:58 PM

Researchers say three coronaviruses identified in horseshoe bats in the north of the country share key similarity with Sars-CoV-2. Read more »

Bat-human virus spillovers may be very common, study finds

South China Morning Post
Posted at Sep 17 10:09 AM

COVID-19 has been called a "once in a century" pandemic, but new research suggests that is more common than previously known. Read more »

Some baby bats babble like human infants: scientists

Lucie Aubourg, Agence France-Presse
Posted at Aug 20 03:38 PM

Some bats are also very talkative in their infancy and even make sounds that recall the googoo-gagas of human babies. Read more »

Chinese scientist at center of virus controversy denies lab leak theory

Agence France-Presse
Posted at Jun 15 10:37 AM

WASHINGTON - The Chinese scientist at the center of theories that the coronavirus pandemic originated with a leak from her specialized lab in the city of Wuhan has denied her institution was to blame for the health disaster. Read more »

Coronavirus likely jumped to humans from bats through 'missing link': expert report

Nina Larson, Agence France-Presse
Posted at Mar 29 09:04 PM

GENEVA, Switzerland - An international expert mission to Wuhan concluded in a report seen Monday that Covid-19 likely first passed to humans from a bat through an intermediary animal, with investigators all but ruling out a laboratory leak. Read more »

Filipino scientists study bats to prevent future pandemics

ABS-CBN News
Updated as of Mar 24 10:59 AM

A group of Filipino scientists is scouring caves, forests and other sites in the Philippines to collect and study viruses present in bats in a bid to prevent the next pandemic. Read more »

PHOTO ESSAY: By catching bats, these 'virus hunters' hope to stop the next pandemic

Eloisa Lopez, Reuters
Posted at Mar 23 12:19 PM

The researchers call themselves the "virus hunters", tasked with catching thousands of bats to develop a simulation model they hope will help the world avoid a pandemic similar to COVID-19, which has killed nearly 2.8 million people. Read more »

I was the Australian doctor on the WHO's COVID-19 mission to China. Here's what we found about the origins of the coronavirus

The Conversation/Reuters
Posted at Feb 22 02:38 PM

Our investigations concluded the virus was most likely of animal origin. It probably crossed over to humans from bats, via an as-yet-unknown intermediary animal, at an unknown location. Read more »

WHO-led COVID-19 probe team in China visits animal health facility

Reuters
Posted at Feb 02 02:56 PM

A team of investigators led by the World Health Organization (WHO) arrived on Tuesday at an animal health facility in China's central city of Wuhan in the search for clues about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more »

Virus hunters delve into Gabon forest in search for next threat

Adrien Marotte, Agence France-Presse
Posted at Dec 23 12:47 PM

Their quest is to unlock new knowledge on how pathogens like coronavirus leap the species barrier to humans. Read more »

Mystery still shrouds COVID-19 origin

Paul Ricard, Agence France-Presse
Posted at Dec 01 01:01 PM

While many scientists are racing to find vaccines to tame the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, other researchers are probing the past, trying to unravel one of the greatest mysteries of the virus: exactly where it came from.   Read more »

What’s special about bat viruses? What we don’t know could hurt us

James Gorman, The New York Times
Posted at Oct 09 10:54 PM

Bats were once of interest mainly to specialists and devoted conservationists. But the global pandemic pushed the animals squarely into the spotlight as the apparent original source of the novel coronavirus. Read more »

What's special about bat viruses? What we don't know could hurt us

James Gorman, The New York Times
Posted at Oct 09 08:37 AM

Bats were once of interest mainly to specialists and devoted conservationists. But the global pandemic pushed the animals squarely into the spotlight as the apparent original source of the novel coronavirus. Now, once arcane research into the large number of viruses that live in bats has acquired a new urgency, along with discussions of what to do about the likelihood of diseases in animals spilling over to humans. Read more »