Bushmeat and zoonoses threats warrant need for national zoonoses combat inter-disciplinary research partnership, evolving citizen science and policy ban of trade and consumption

Ansu Thomas

doi:10.18203/issn.2454-2156.IntJSciRep20205499

Authors

Ansu Thomas Attatharayil, Edappavoor, Ayroor, Pathanamthitta, Kerala

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18203/issn.2454-2156.IntJSciRep20205499

Keywords:

Epidemiology, Zoonoses, Emerging infectious diseases

Abstract

“We must find them before they find us” said Dr.Shi, Bat Virologist”. Indian bat species diversity stands 127 ssp and China 147 bat ssp. Indian publications online (2000-2020), searching “bat”, “Chiroptera”, “India”, retrieved results viz., 191 (Elsevier); 27 (Scopus) and 0 (Wiley). For China, 594 publications exist (2000-2017)2; Himalayan cave bat biodiversity is not systematized, average annual deforestation rate, from 2000 to 2014 being 0.5% (Bhutan, Nepal) but 1.3% in India, China. “Dilution effect”, so-called “negative diversity–disease”, says ‘biodiversity losses promote disease transmission’. Protecting natural areas from human incursion reduces zoonotic disease spillover. Emergence of bat coronavirus represents recent viral explosion reaction to declining biodiversity. Meta-analysis of 143 hunting studies from India showed 114 mammal species but bat-hunting data absent.

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