Do not blame bats and pangolins! Global consequences for wildlife conservation after the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic
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COMMENTARY
Do not blame bats and pangolins! Global consequences for wildlife conservation after the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic Manfredo A. Turcios-Casco1,2 • Roberto Cazzolla Gatti2,3 Received: 18 May 2020 / Revised: 17 August 2020 / Accepted: 14 September 2020 Ó Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract This pandemic situation requests a correct understanding of our impacts on wildlife conservation, which would also provide benefits for our species. In this commentary we revised and discussed some of the repercussions that SARS-CoV-2 pandemic may have to wildlife. We propose four actions that should be taken into account to protect and conserve wildlife in this pandemic era: wildlife ‘‘wet’’ markets must close; human interference with wildlife must be reduced; bats and pangolins must be conserved and not blamed; and Chinese traditional medicine must be more controlled. Keywords Bats Biodiversity conservation COVID-19 Pandemic Pangolins
Introduction While the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak was expanding in a pandemic, many research groups tried to rapidly identify its likely origin and initially pointed to bats (Chiroptera). Some studies suggested that bats, because of their unique behavior (Fan et al. 2019), are the most probable natural host of the new coronavirus and, via an unknown intermediate, they infected humans (Guo et al. 2020). Although some authors have suggested that the origin of this new coronavirus could be a Chinese lab (Xiao and Xiao 2020), new evidence has focused on the recombination of SARS-CoV-2 by a potential spillover from bats to Sunda pangolins (Manis javanica), that have a weak immune system and can be easily attacked by new pathogens (Cazzolla Gatti 2020a). In fact, although some scientific evidence is still needed to support this hypothesis, it is likely for pangolin coronavirus to have originated Communicated by Dirk Sven Schmeller. Manfredo A. Turcios-Casco and Roberto Cazzolla Gatti have contributed equally to this work. & Roberto Cazzolla Gatti [email protected] 1
´ reas Departamento de Vida Silvestre, Instituto Nacional de Conservacio´n y Desarrollo Forestal, A Protegidas y Vida Silvestre (ICF), Francisco Moraza´n, Honduras
2
Biological Institute, Tomsk State University (TSU), Tomsk, Russia
3
Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, Klosterneuburg, Austria
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Biodiversity and Conservation
from bat viruses as a result of illegal trapping of alive animals in East Asia and their sale in the wildlife market of Wuhan, in the Hubei province of China, with a subsequent humanto-human transmission (Andersen et al. 2020; Lau et al. 2020). However, the animal species that is at the origin of SARS-CoV-19 has yet to be identified (Cyranoski 2020). Nonetheless, this is not a new situation. Other viruses, such as the SARS-CoV, the MERSCoV and the Indian Nipah virus (Hu et al. 2015), are responsible for zoonoses and epidemics transmitted by infected reservoir animals to human beings. Animals host pathogens that in normal condition
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