Researchers have discovered four new species of bats in Kenya which are said to be related to those that carry Covid-19 which were first discovered in China.
The four species of bats are said to be capable of carrying the deadly Coronavirus but according to researchers, they are currently free of any harmful diseases.
The researchers said they will use the bats to scientific studies and use them to prepare the world for any future outbreaks from such animals.
“Leaf-nosed bats carry coronaviruses – not the strain that’s affecting humans right now, but this is certainly not the last time a virus will be transmitted from a wild mammal to humans,” Terry Demos, a post-doctoral researcher at the Field Museum in the US argues.
“If we have a better knowledge of what these bats are, we will be better prepared if that happens.”
The scientists said they made the discovery after examining a museum specimen in Kenya, which was earlier thought to be a regular species but turned out to be new species of bats.
The bats were named leafed-nosed due to their elaborate flaps of skin on their noses which they use as radar to communicate with the others and hunt insects.
Coronavirus is believed to have originated from a species of bats known as horseshoe where the disease was later transmitted to a pangolin and then to humans. The horseshoe bats have 25 species.
Scientists say there are up to 1,400 species of bats but only 25 percent of them have been discovered in the last 15 years.
This is a real challenge since bats have been associated with a couple of diseases that have affected humans over the past including the SARs and Ebola.
Apparently, scientists have not yet discovered the species of the horseshoe bats that cause Covid-19 which has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.
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