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Blaming The Bats

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the kree-kree-off-into-the-night-searching-for-bananas dept.

d'alz writes "Bats have long been the subject of various conflicting theories. They have been linked with lethal viruses that cause Ebola hemorrhagic fever, SARS, Nipah or Hendra. But of late researchers have taken a complete shift in these theories. They now claim that bats are being blamed for human mistakes. It now seems that these outbreaks could be a direct result of the encroachments that took place over the years in the rainforests." From the article: "Emerging viruses like the one that causes SARS are symptoms of the drastic, large-scale changes humans are making in the life of the planet. At a time of intense concern about avian flu, it is hardly controversial to argue that human health is linked to animal health. But the field challenges traditional academic divisions, especially the cultural divide between doctors and veterinarians."

2 of 63 comments (clear)

  1. Animal contact with humans not animal health by brianf711 · · Score: 2, Informative

    >"it is hardly controversial to argue that human health is linked to animal health." I would argue that perhaps the greater problem is the number of people living in close proximity to these animals. Whereas the diseases listed above may have been confined to non-human animals for long periods of time, the frequency of jumping to humans must depend on the amount of contact they both have. I don't know to what degree animal health fits into this, unless you suggest animals have weakened immune systems due to abnormal environmental stresses. The term for diseases (usually animal in origin) that can jump to humans is zoonosis, and the wikipedia article here may be a more valuable reference than the submitter's comments. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoonosis The events that change the degree of association of humans and animals, such as raising domestic animals as livestock and other similar agricultural and cultural changes may have a bigger impact on the number of new (to humans) pathogens than the health of the zoonotic population.

  2. Bats Information. by mad.frog · · Score: 3, Informative

    Bats are an incredibly misunderstood animal, with far more benefit to humans than generally thought. They're also incredibly interesting. Check out the Bat Conservation International website for a lot of interesting information.

    http://www.batcon.org/home/default.asp