canping-huang-phd-novel-virus-discovery-in-bat-isn-translation

Chapter Five: Bats and Emerging Infectious Diseases
Emerging infectious diseases are a continuous international occurrence. They pose a
significant threat and result in great costs to public health [146] . Since 1980, at least ninety
kinds of novel pathogen have been identified. This looks likely to increase each year [138,147] .
An outbreak of emerging infectious disease is usually due to a pathogen of one host
crossing the species barrier to infect a novel host. There are two general causes of crossing
over [105, 140, 148] : environmental and man-made. First, the outbreak of vector-borne disease
is closely linked to climate change [115] . Global warming alters the distribution of
arboviruses, which can cause some new areas to become hotspots, for instance, outbreaks
of Dengue fever [116-118] and the migration of West Nile virus [119, 120] . Climate change can
also impact the breeding, mortality, density and numbers of Glires. Studies show that from
1993-1994 and 1998-1999, the outbreak of Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome in the U.S.
South was related to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Ample rainfall speeds up the
growth of vegetation, which provides sufficient food for Glires and increases group density.
This increases the possibility of transmitting Hantavirus to humans [121,122] . Second,
regarding man-made factors, reclamation, intensive farming, wildlife hunting and eating,
and urbanization cause significant damage to the environment and to animals’ habitats. All
of these can also potentially cause pathogens to cross over the species barrier and can lead
to disease outbreaks. Increased land reclamation and the establishment of breeding farms
damaged the habitats of fruit bats and led to the outbreak of Nipah virus. The virus jumped
from bats to pigs and from pigs to workers at the breeding farm, which eventually led to an
outbreak [123, 124] . Close interaction between humans and wildlife in rainforests also
increases the risk of emerging infectious disease outbreaks [125-127] . Hunters, villagers, mine
workers, lumberjacks and tourists can invade areas that were untouched in the past and
thus increase the chances of human interaction with animals living in those areas.
Outbreaks of Marburg virus and Ebola virus were the result of interactions between
humans and unknown hosts [128] . HIV is possibly related to SIV from monkeys and apes. In
the 1930s, humans acquired the disease from chimpanzees and spread it all over the world
[129] .
Section 1: Cross-Species Transmission of Influenza and Coronavirus
Influenza virus and coronavirus are two typical pathogens known to transmit across
species. Especially, as we enter the 21 st century
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A partial translation into English of the PhD thesis: “Novel Virus Discovery in Bat and the Exploration of
Receptor of Bat Coronavirus HKU9” by Canping Huang, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention,
2016. Translation completed for Independent Science News in March 2021.