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Most evidence scientists have generated since the start of the pandemic points to bats as the likely source of the COVID-19–causing coronavirus. A shift in the global distribution of the winged mammals due to climate change may be responsible for recent disease outbreaks, according to a study published January 26 in Science of The Total Environment.
The authors of the paper estimate that bat diversity increased the most in an area that includes Myanmar, Laos, and southern China—where SARS-CoV-2 likely originated—thereby increasing the chances of a bat-borne disease spreading to humans.
“Our estimates add to previous studies that have highlighted the effect that climate change can have on the global distribution of pathogen-carrying wildlife,” Robert Beyer, a research fellow at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany and the lead author of the study, tells The Scientist in an email. “We know that these ...
