COIMBATORE: Though the strain of coronavirus found in bats is completely different from the one found in humans, the recent discovery has triggered panic in many interior areas in the State. Scientists recently found the presence of a coronavirus strain in two Indian bat species commonly found in the Western Ghats.
However, the strain of the virus has nothing to do with COVID-19. The strain causing COVID-19 has not been found in any bat species, the National Institute of Virology in Pune confirmed on Wednesday. The findings have brought little comfort to residents of Kittampalayam Pancahayt near Sulur in Coimbatore.
“There are a large number of bats living in our village since the past two decades. Now, after the study findings people in our village are worried about transmission of the disease from bats to humans,” said the village president VMC Chandrasekar in a letter to the municipal administration and rural development minister SP Velumani.
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“We request the district administration to take proper steps to allay fear,” he said in the letter also marked to the district collector and local MLA. Wildlife conservation organisation Arulagam, in an extreme step, has blamed the research and its authors for ‘diminishing the importance of personal hygiene’ by putting the blame on bats. “We request such organisations not to publish these studies now, and trigger panic. People may ignore personal hygiene and instead go around killing bats,” says S Bharathidasan secretary of Arulagam. Biologist at the Zoological Society of London, Andrew Cunningham, says bats are actually the solution and not the problem.
“When bats are stressed out — when they are being hunted or their habitats are damaged — its immune system get challenged. It finds it harder to cope with pathogens that it otherwise may have taken in the stride,” says Cunningham. “Understanding how bats cope with these pathogens can help us learn how to deal with them if and when it spills over to humans.” There are several strains and types of the coronavirus. The common cold, experts say, is also caused by one such virus.