New Study Reveals Global "Hot Spots" Where New Coronaviruses May Emerge

The new study used remote sensing to analyze land-use patterns throughout the horseshoe bat's range, which extends from Western Europe through Southeast Asia.

Global land-use changes including forest fragmentation, agricultural expansion and concentrated livestock production are creating "hot spots" favourable for bats that carry coronaviruses and where conditions are ripe for the diseases to jump from bats to humans, finds a new study. The findings were published by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, the Politecnico di Milano (Polytechnic University of Milan) and the Massey University of New Zealand. While the exact origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus remain unclear, scientists believe that the disease likely emerged when a virus that infects horseshoe bats was able to jump to humans, either directly through wildlife-to-human contact, or indirectly by first infecting an intermediate animal host, such as the pangolin, sometimes known as the scaly anteater. Horseshoe bats are known to carry a variety of coronaviruses, including strains that are genetically similar to ones that cause COVID-19 and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).