China, Japan, Philippines and Thailand may turn into "hotspots" favourable for bats that carry coronaviruses and conditions in these places could become ripe for the disease to jump from bats to humans, finds a new study. The study showed that this is because of the global land-use changes including forest fragmentation, agricultural expansion and concentrated livestock production. Horseshoe bats are known to carry a variety of coronaviruses, including strains that are genetically similar to ones that cause Covid-19 and SARS. The analysis also identified locations that could become easily become hot spots with changes in land use. Most of the current hot spots are clustered in China, where a growing demand for meat products has driven the expansion of large-scale, industrial livestock farming.

Source: dna June 02, 2021 16:52 UTC