Researchers took bat samples from Stung Treng province near Laos, to Institut Pasteur du Cambodge in Phnom Penh in 2010. Last year, Cambodia bat technicians tested them for the pathogen causing COVID-19. They discovered they carried a very close relative to the virus that killed 4.8 million people in the COVID pandemic.
Cambodia Bat Researchers Follow Up on Finding
An eight member team from Institut Pasteur du Cambodge has been collecting more bat samples from northern Cambodia during the past week. Reuters.Com reports they have been tagging them for species, sex, age and other details.
Field coordinator Thavry Hoem explained the rationale to Reuters on September 20, 2121. ‘We hope the result from this study can help the world have a better understanding about COVID-19,’ she explained. Bats typically display no symptoms of pathogens, but these can be devastating if transmitted to humans, or other animals.
Dr. Veasna Duong is Head of Virology at Institut Pasteur du Cambodge. He says Cambodia bat researchers have visited caves in the northern region four times in the past two years. That’s because they are hoping to uncover clues about the evolution of the closely-related virus.
What Phnom Penh Researchers Hope to Achieve
‘We want to find out whether the virus is still there. And moreover to know how the virus has evolved,” Duong told Reuters. Human interference in, and destruction of habitats is responsible for the pandemic and its devastation, he says.
‘If we try to be near wildlife, the chances of getting the virus carried by wildlife are more than normal. The chances of the virus transforming to infect humans are also more,’ he believes.
Duong’s project will drill down into how trade in wildlife could be releasing pathogens. Viruses like the ones that caused SARS and MERS outbreaks in the past. His team hopes to uncover more beta coronaviruses circulating through wild meat trade chains in Cambodia. And develop an integrated early-detection system for viral spill-over events.
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Preview Image: A Cambodia Bat Cave
