A recent commentary, penned by a group of conservation and primate professionals, asks the worldwide community to do something about it to secure the great apes from prospective SARS-CoV-2 infection.
The COVID-19 pandemic has actually touched almost every corner of the world. Authorities are battling to slow its spread, and human health has seldom been more acutely in the spotlight.
Some researchers, on the other hand, are asking whether this novel infection may impact nonhuman animals, too.
Specialists think that SARS-CoV-2 came from animals and passed to human beings. A lot of researchers now think that it began in bats, then passed into pangolins before infecting humans.
Nevertheless, it is unclear whether this infection might move from people into other animals, in a process is called reverse zoonosis
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Scientists have actually currently revealed that great apes are prone to human respiratory infections, such as human rhinovirus C, one infection that can trigger the common cold.
Due to the fact that numerous apes in this group, that includes chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, and gorillas, are currently endangered, specialists are worried that COVID-19 could devastate populations.
Authored by 25 researchers, a recent commentary published in Nature raises the alarm.
Among the authors, Thomas Gillespie, Ph.D., an illness ecologist at Emory University, in Atlanta, GA, discusses that the COVID-19 pandemic is “a possibly alarming situation for primates. There is a lot at stake for those in risk of termination.”
To date, scientists do not understand precisely how apes will respond to SARS-CoV-2, as the authors outline:
” It is unkn