This bat hunter has spent ten years trying to prevent the next big pandemic by searching bat caves for new pathogens -- more specifically, new coronaviruses.
Equipped with headlights, they set their nets up at the entrance of the dark opening overhung with bamboo trees, which is part of a vast system of limestone caves in China's south-western Yunnan province.The Smithsonian Institution carries out bat sampling in Myanmar and Kenya, allowing them to discover 6 new coronaviruses.Then they patiently wait for dusk. When the sun sets, thousands of bats fly out of the caves, looking for food -- and straight into their nets.
"A virus is considered new if more than 20% of its DNA differs from that of known viruses," explains Supaporn Watcharaprueksadee, who studies emerging diseases, independently from Predict, in a lab linked to Chulalongkorn university in Bangkok. Once the samples have been taken from bats, EcoHealth Alliance's scientists place the vials in liquid nitrogen and send them out to a lab to have them analyzed.
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