A few days after the publication of a study in the scientific journal The Lancet Suspecting dromedaries from the Sultanate of Oman to be the vectors of transmission of the Coronavirus, the eyes of scientists are now turning to bats in Saudi Arabia.
The new discoveries made by researchers at Columbia University and published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases are able to confirm that the bats analyzed carry the same virus that infects humans.
More than 1,000 samples from 7 species of bats in the regions of Saudi Arabia where cases of MERS-Cov have been identified have made it possible to obtain these results. Scientists believe this time to have a very serious lead. “There have already been several announcements of discoveries of viruses resembling MERS in animals, but none matched exactly genetically as is the case with the pathogen found in a bat”, assures Ian Lipkin, one of the co-authors of the ‘study.
For some time there had been doubts about bats as a possible source of infection by the virus. If not yet known, it is possible that the bats subsequently used the dromedaries as intermediate hosts to transmit the infectious agent.
The hypothesis of a direct transmission from bats to humans has indeed not been established, as explained by Dr. Ziad Memish, Saudi Deputy Minister of Health: “transmission between humans is very difficile. So we believe there may be an intermediate vector to transmit the coronavirus to people. “
For the moment all this is only conjecture and there are still many uncertainties surrounding this respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-Cov) which has killed 47 peoplein the world.
