Fuente: https://www.smithsonianmag.com
Por: Katherine J. Wu
ARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus behind
the COVID-19 pandemic, got its start in a still unidentified animal
source before making its hop into humans. Now, as the outbreak continues
to grow, experts are beginning to worry that the virus may be poised to
make yet another devastating cross-species jump into some of our
closest living relatives, including gorillas, orangutans and
chimpanzees.
Already threatened by rampant habitat destruction, poaching and
other illnesses, these and other great ape species could be further
imperiled by the new virus, which swept across the global human
population, sickening hundreds of thousands—and likely more—in a matter
of weeks. Though no non-human primates have yet been diagnosed with
COVID-19, a team of researchers has put out an impassioned plea for
enhanced protections for our kin to forestall such a crisis, Damian
Carrington reports for the Guardian.
“The COVID-19 pandemic is a critical situation for humans, our
health and our economies,” Thomas Gillespie of Emory University, who
recently wrote a letter to the journal Nature detailing the risks of the ape-human infection interface, tells the Guardian. “It’s also a potentially dire situation for great apes. There is a lot at stake for those in danger of extinction.”
Members of the great ape group, which includes humans, share a
great deal of genetic material and anatomy, making them susceptible to several of the same diseases.
In some cases, symptoms present similarly across species. But in other
cases, pathogens that typically spark mild illnesses in humans can be lethal to other great apes.
For these transmission events to happen, two species have to come
into close contact, exchanging the bodily fluids that pathogens tend to
travel in, such as droplets produced from the airway through sneezes and
coughs. Such encounters are rare, but as humans continue to encroach on
wild habitats and tour their forested homes for recreation or research,
the risks have grown. In 2008, researchers documented the first direct evidence
of a virus passing from humans into wild apes; eight years later,
another hop happened involving a relative of SARS-CoV-2, specifically
with a coronavirus known to cause the common cold.
Species such as the Tapanuli orangutan, an Indonesian great ape
whose numbers severely dwindled, could be brought “even closer to
extinction” by an unexpected viral outbreak, Serge Wich of Liverpool
John Moores University tells Helen Briggs at BBC News.
Under typical circumstances, national parks that are home to wild
ape populations will instate distance requirements to keep humans from
infecting or otherwise harming animals. But these rules are often
broken—sometimes by the humans, and sometimes by the apes, Ugandan
conservationist Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka tells Rodney Muhumuza at the Associated Press.
To minimize transmission during the pandemic, some experts advocate
for a halt to “great ape trekking tours, research and habituation
activities,” conservationist Arend de Haas writes for the Conversation.
“Ecotourism is vital to the long-term conservation of endangered
animals. But in the longer term, a ban would protect the great apes as
well the ecotourism operations.”
Already, many national parks have closed
to patrons. In some cases, this could amount to a pyrrhic victory—if,
for instance, patrols are no longer able to keep poachers out of ape
habitats—and the losses in tourist revenue have many officials worried
about the future of conservation-focused establishments, according to
the Associated Press. Researchers also don’t yet have a sense what
symptoms—if any—other apes might experience if SARS-CoV-2 is indeed able
to infiltrate their bodies.
But as Susan Sheward of Orangutan Appeal UK tells the Guardian, amidst a global crisis, transferring this deadly virus to our vulnerable kin “is a risk that we cannot [afford to] take.”
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