Unveiling the Bat Biology Connection to Pandemic Prevention

Researchers have developed a framework to model the growth and spread of viruses within bat populations and between bats and other animals, aiming to understand how infected bats could potentially seed future pandemics. The study emphasizes the importance of a potential reservoir's tolerance to being infected, rather than just its genetic relatedness to humans, in predicting the threat of viral spillover between species. The research provides a theoretical framework for future comparative immunological studies and suggests that an animal's lifespan could serve as a reasonable proxy for its ability to tolerate diseases. By learning from bats' immune systems, scientists hope to better protect against future outbreaks from other species.