STUNG TRENG, Cambodia: Researchers are amassing samples from bats in northern Cambodia in a bid to grasp the COVID-19 pandemic, returning to a area the place a really related virus was discovered within the animals a decade in the past.
Two samples from horseshoe bats have been collected in 2010 in Stung Treng province close to Laos and stored in freezers on the Institut Pasteur du Cambodge (IPC) in Phnom Penh.
Checks executed on them final 12 months revealed a detailed relative to the coronavirus that has killed greater than 4.6 million folks worldwide.
An eight-member IPC analysis workforce has been amassing samples from bats and logging their species, intercourse, age and different particulars for every week. Comparable analysis is happening within the Philippines.
“We hope that the end result from this examine may also help the world to have a greater understanding about COVID-19,” area coordinator Thavry Hoem informed Reuters, as she held a web to catch bats.
Host species equivalent to bats sometimes show no signs of pathogens, however these might be devastating if transmitted to people or different animals.
Dr Veasna Duong, Head of Virology on the IPC, mentioned his institute had made 4 such journeys previously two years, hoping for clues in regards to the origin and evolution of the bat-borne virus.
“We need to discover out whether or not the virus continues to be there and … to understand how the virus has developed,” he informed Reuters.
Comments are closed.