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Blaming The Bats
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."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4398660.stm article saying Vampire Bats in brazil are killing humans (23 in the last 2 months.) In all 1,300 people have been treated for rabies from bat bites. Some experts blame it on deforestation. Others blame it on lots of cows (really, see article). "Mass attacks on humans have occurred in other cattle regions in Latin America when the cattle are suddenly removed."
Funnypics
This whole idea is just plain batty.
Paul Grosfield - the quicker picker upper.
I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species, and I realised that humans are not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment; but you humans do not. Instead you multiply, and multiply, until every resource is consumed. The only way for you to survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern... a virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer on this planet, you are a plague, and we... are the cure.
I suggest a reasonable compromise: let's blame Batman.
If humans kill animals, it is the humans' fault. If animals kill humans, it is the humans' fault.
Yep - that pretty much sums it up.
>"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.
Bats? Bats have been considered a source of Ebola, SARS, and other virulent contaigens? But now some scientist types have awaken from their delusional state and remembered their theory from a decade ago that all these diseases are showing up because of man's encroashment on previously untouched parts of the environment... and we're supposed to buy it? After "bats" was put on the table as a serious contender they expect us to accept the takeback and revert to their time tested "human existence is its own worst enemy" fallback position?
Bats?
What the hell? When did this theory start getting serious recognition anyway? I feel like I did 5 or 6 years ago when seemingly out of no where everyone was talking about the theory of the extinction of dinosaurs being caused by an asteroid impact as being more or less fact. When I was in middle school and high school there were a number of theories discussed and no one was given considerably more or less weight than the others. There was the asteroid theory, of course. There was also a climate change theory, a disease theory, a species encroachment theory and probably a couple others I'm not remembering. Then seemingly a few years later I'm reading a web site or a news report or watching TV or something and the death of dinosaurs is attributed to that asteroid, as if it were written on stone and handed down from on high.
I know now that there was the discovery and research of the yuccatan crater, but still it was very disconcerting that something so fundamental in the "modern" history of the planet had gone from multi-theory to essentially a single theory and I hadn't heard anything about it until some time after the fact. Must have missed that all important week the world was abuzz with the massive shift in dinosaur extinction thought.
So anyway...
Bats.
Really? That's just seems loopy. Of course, encroachment on African, Asian, or Central/South American jungles isn't that good of an explanation for SARS or Bird Flu either, but at least it aint bats. Seriously, bats? Who comes up with this stuff?
This was in Africa where normally bats will leave you alone and will fly away if they see people. This one looked a bit strange and when I walked past it dropped down onto me. Luckily for me it didn't bite and I managed to flip it off. The bat was obviously feverish and had the right symptoms.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
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