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Hawai‘i Police DepartmentArea II Criminal Investigation SectionDetective Cacique MelendezPhone: (808) 327-0046, Ext. 281
Hawai‘i Island police are requesting the public’s assistance in locating 32-year-old Keanu Olival of no permanent address, who is wanted on two outstanding arrest warrants. Additionally, he is a suspect in a stolen firearm investigation and is also a suspect in an unrelated stolen vehicle investigation.
Olival should be considered armed and dangerous.
He is described as local with a thin build, 5 feet 7 inches, 170 pounds, bushy black hair with a receding hairline, full beard, and brown eyes. Olival has numerous tattoos, including a full sleeve on his left arm, a right-hand tattoo, and a tattoo on the shin of his right leg. Please be aware that wanted suspects may change their appearance by altering their hairstyles or facial hair.
The Hawai‘i Police Department would like to remind the public that harboring or concealing a wanted person can result in criminal charges against the person who harbors or conceals the wanted person.
Police ask anyone with information on Olival’s whereabouts to please call the police department non-emergency line at (808) 935-3311 or Detective C. Melendez at (808) 209-6896.
Tipsters who prefer to remain anonymous may call Crime Stoppers at (808) 961-8300 and may be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000. Crime Stoppers is a volunteer program run by ordinary citizens who want to keep their community safe. Crime Stoppers doesn’t record calls or subscribe to caller ID. All Crime Stoppers information is kept confidential.
Tipsters who prefer to remain anonymous may call the island-wide Crime Stoppers number at 961-8300 and may be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.00. Crime Stoppers is a volunteer program run by ordinary citizens who want to keep their community safe. Crime Stoppers does not record calls or subscribe to any Caller ID service. All Crime Stoppers information is kept confidential.
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If you come across 32-year-old Keanu Olival
he is considered armed and dangerous and being sought by Big Island police
is a suspect in two unrelated cases under investigation — one involves a stolen firearm and the other a stolen vehicle
He is also wanted on two outstanding arrest warrants
with bushy black hair and a receding hairline
a right-hand tattoo and a tattoo on his right shin
Keep in mind that wanted suspects might change their appearance by altering their hairstyles or facial hair
The public is reminded that harboring or concealing a wanted person can result in criminal charges
Anyone with information about Olival’s whereabouts is asked to call the Hawai‘i Police Department non-emergency line at 808-935-3311 or contact Detective C
Those who prefer to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers at 808-961-8300
Metrics details
An Erratum to this article was published on 23 August 2017
Here we conduct a comprehensive analysis of mammalian host–virus relationships and show that both the total number of viruses that infect a given species and the proportion likely to be zoonotic are predictable
the proportion of zoonotic viruses per species is predicted by phylogenetic relatedness to humans
host taxonomy and human population within a species range—which may reflect human–wildlife contact
We demonstrate that bats harbour a significantly higher proportion of zoonotic viruses than all other mammalian orders
We also identify the taxa and geographic regions with the largest estimated number of ‘missing viruses’ and ‘missing zoonoses’ and therefore of highest value for future surveillance
We then show that phylogenetic host breadth and other viral traits are significant predictors of zoonotic potential
providing a novel framework to assess if a newly discovered mammalian virus could infect people
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Host range and emerging and reemerging pathogens
Global trends in emerging infectious diseases
Prediction and prevention of the next pandemic zoonosis
Cross-species virus transmission and the emergence of new epidemic diseases
Viral factors in influenza pandemic risk assessment
Ability to replicate in the cytoplasm predicts zoonotic transmission of livestock viruses
Emerging pathogens: the epidemiology and evolution of species jumps
Phylogenetic host specificity and understanding parasite sharing in primates
Phylogeny and geography predict pathogen community similarity in wild primates and humans
Centrality in primate-parasite networks reveals the potential for the transmission of emerging infectious diseases to humans
A comparison of bats and rodents as reservoirs of zoonotic viruses: are bats special
Quantifying global drivers of zoonotic bat viruses: a process-based perspective
Host phylogeny constrains cross-species emergence and establishment of rabies virus in bats
Rodent reservoirs of future zoonotic diseases
Virus taxonomy: Eighth Report of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses
Global drivers of human pathogen richness and prevalence
Targeting surveillance for zoonotic virus discovery
Contraction of the type I IFN locus and unusual constitutive expression of IFN-α in bats
Phylogenetic structure and host abundance drive disease pressure in communities
The evolution and genetics of virus host shifts
Isolation and characterization of a bat SARS-like coronavirus that uses the ACE2 receptor
Global displacement of canine parvovirus by a host-adapted variant: A structural comparison between pandemic viruses with distinct host ranges
A strategy to estimate unknown viral diversity in mammals
Virological factors that increase the transmissibility of emerging human viruses
Geographical variation in predictors of mammalian extinction risk: big is bad
The global mammal parasite database: An online resource for infectious disease records in wild primates
in New Directions in Conservation Medicine: Applied Cases of Ecological Health (eds Aguirre
Bats: important reservoir hosts of emerging viruses
World Watch List for Domestic Animal Diversity
(Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
IUCN. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.1, http://www.iucnredlist.org (2014)
The significant but understudied impact of pathogen transmission from humans to animals
Reverse zoonotic disease transmission (zooanthroponosis): a systematic review of seldom-documented human biological threats to animals
PanTHERIA: a species-level database of life history
and geography of extant and recently extinct mammals
A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits
Host longevity and parasite species richness in mammals
Testing for phylogenetic signal in comparative data: behavioral traits are more labile
On the selection of phylogenetic eigenvectors for ecological analyses
An eigenvector method for estimating phylogenetic inertia
APE: analyses of phylogenetics and evolution in R language
MUSCLE: multiple sequence alignment with high accuracy and high throughput
A rapid bootstrap algorithm for the RAxML Web servers
A simple model explains the dynamics of preferential host switching among mammal RNA viruses
Host specificity in phylogenetic and geographic space
Parasite specialization from a phylogenetic perspective: a new index of host specificity
R Core Team R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. http://www.R-project.org/ (2014)
Practical variable selection for generalized additive models
In All Likelihood: Statistical Modelling and Inference Using Likelihood
An update of Wallace’s zoogeographic regions of the world
QGIS Geographic Information System. Open Source Geospatial Foundation Project http://www.qgis.org/ (2016)
The HYDE 3.1 spatially explicit database of human-induced global land-use change over the past 12,000 years
raster: Geographic Data Analysis and Modeling version 2.3-40 https://cran.r-project.org/package=raster (2015)
sp: Classes and Methods for Spatial Data version 1.2-1 https://cran.r-project.org/package=sp (2015)
Download references
This research was supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Emerging Pandemic Threats PREDICT program; and NIH NIAID awards R01AI079231 and R01AI110964
Willoughby for assistance with data collection
designed the study and supervised the collection of data
All authors were involved in writing the manuscript
The authors declare no competing financial interests
Dushoff and the other anonymous reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work
Publisher's note: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
Conceptual model of zoonotic spillover showing primary risk factors examined
colour-coded according to generalized additive models used
GAMs used in our study to address specific components of a and b
Variables listed with ‘or’ under each GAM covaried and were provided as competing terms in model selection
and those in bold were included in the best-fit model using all host–virus associations
Significant variables from each best-fit GAM are noted with an asterisk
Zoonotic viral spillover first depends on the underlying total viral richness in mammal populations and the ecological
and life-history traits that govern this diversity (GAM 1)
host- and virus-specific factors may facilitate viral spillover
We examine the relative importance of host phylogenetic distance to humans
or other species-specific life-history and taxonomic traits (GAM 2)
and identify viral traits associated with a higher likelihood of an observed virus being zoonotic (GAM 3)
We estimate the total and zoonotic viral richness per host species using GAMs 1 and 2
and calculate the missing viruses and missing zoonoses under a scenario of increased research effort (b
Owing to imperfect surveillance in both humans and wildlife and biases in viral detection
there may be uncertainty in the exact proportion of viruses that are zoonotic (b
viral richness (dotted lines) and the predicted maximum viral richness per host (dashed line)
Dataset includes 754 mammalian species and 586 unique ICTV recognized viral species
Heat map aggregated by rows and columns to group taxa with similar levels of observed viral richness
global mammal species richness (n = 5,290); h
mammal richness for species in our database (n = 753); i
mammal species with no described viruses in the literature
Warmer colours (larger values) in panels c and f highlight areas predicted to be of greatest value for discovering novel viruses or novel viral zoonoses
Red/pink colours in panel i highlight areas with poor viral surveillance in mammal species to date
Hatched regions represent areas where model predictions deviate systematically for the collection of species in that grid cell (see Methods)
global host species richness for Carnivora (n = 276); h
host species richness for Carnivora in our database (n = 79); i
species of the order Carnivora with no described viruses in the literature
Warmer colours (larger values) in c and f highlight areas predicted to be of greatest value for discovering novel viruses or novel viral zoonoses
Red/pink colours in panel i highlight areas with poor viral surveillance in carnivore species to date
global host species richness for Cetartiodactyla (n = 229); h
host species richness for Cetartiodactyla in our database (n = 105); i
species of the order Cetartiodactyla with no described viruses in the literature
Red/pink colours in panel i highlight areas with poor viral surveillance in even-toed ungulates species to date
global host species richness for Chiroptera (n = 1117); h
host species richness for Chiroptera in our database (n = 192); i
species of the order Chiroptera with no described viruses in the literature
Red/pink colours in panel i highlight areas with poor viral surveillance in bat species to date
global host species richness for Primates (n = 400); h
host species richness for Primates in our database (n = 98); i
primate species with no described viruses in the literature
Red/pink colours in panel i highlight areas with poor viral surveillance in primate species to date
global host species richness for Rodentia (n = 2206); h
host species richness for Rodentia in our database (n = 221); i
rodent species with no described viruses in the literature
Red/pink colours in panel i highlight areas with poor viral surveillance in rodent species to date
Subtrees from cytochrome b maximum likelihood phylogeny for 558 mammal species (constrained to order-level topology of mammal supertree) for bats (a)
Species included have at least one described virus association and available genetic data
Wildlife species names and terminal branches are colour-coded by the residuals (predicted minus observed) from the best-fit GAM to predict the number of zoonotic viruses using all data
Species with residual values between −1 and 1 (black) are accurately predicted within one virus
Warm colours represent species with positive residuals (orange >1 to 3; red >3)
Cool colours represent species with negative residuals (green <−1 to −3; blue <−3)
and species with missing data and not included in the best-fit models are shown in grey
This file contains a Supplementary Discussion and additional references
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pose a serious threat to global public health
Peter Daszak and colleagues create a comprehensive database of mammalian host–virus relationships
which they analyse to determine patterns of virus and zoonotic virus distribution in mammals
They identify various factors that influence the number and diversity of viruses that infect a given species as well as factors that predict the proportion of zoonotic viruses per species
they identify mammalian species and geographic locations where novel zoonoses are likely to be found
Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Microbiology newsletter — what matters in microbiology research
Researchers give fruit juice to a short-nosed fruit bat after sampling its saliva
They'll look for new viruses in the bat's bodily fluids
NPR accompanied disease ecologist Kevin Olival on a field trip to Malaysian Borneo
Olival, who is with the nonprofit research group EcoHealth Alliance
was there to trap bats and collect samples of their body fluids
He and his collaborators would then test the samples for viruses
Bats are known for carrying some dangerous ones
particularly viruses that have the potential to kick off global outbreaks through what's called "spillovers" — instances of an animal virus jumping into a human
So the researchers were on a hunt for the next big threat
The results of their work put the current coronavirus outbreak in China in a wholly new light
Scientists say it was caused by a spillover event
And the findings from the sample collection project suggest these kinds of spillovers have actually been quietly taking place in China for years
The evidence comes from hours of painstaking sample collection sessions
Olival is at the edge of a rainforest
girl," says Olival soothingly as the bat wriggles
"So we're getting the oral swab in the back of the throat," Olival explains
"And I'm just holding her head between my two fingers."
There's definitely some sample on that swab."
"That was a reaction to a rectal swab," says Olival wryly
"Now she gets her special treat," says Olival
"A little bit of mango juice as a reward."
Olival and his colleagues were also in the process of collecting samples from thousands of bats in China
Olival says what they found is alarming: "We found evidence for
That means 400 potential candidates to spark another outbreak
a coronavirus caused a massive outbreak in China back in 2002 — severe acute respiratory syndrome
And this current outbreak is from a SARS-related coronavirus
It gets worse: Scientists had thought spillovers were rare — that bat coronaviruses weren't generally capable of infecting humans
Step one: A bat coronavirus would have to infect some animal species that had closer contact with people than bats do
Step two: While in that other animal's body
the virus would need to pick up new genetic code
But the sampling project found that those steps are not needed
"What we showed was that SARS-related viruses in these bat populations have the potential to go directly into human cells and do not need that extra mutational step [of] infecting another host."
the path to sparking new outbreaks is potentially much more direct
one of the coronaviruses that the researchers found was a very close genetic match for the SARS virus
So they put it in a petri dish with human cells
The virus succeeded in infecting the cells
the bat will be released back into the wild
Olival says the fact that a bat coronavirus had at least this biological ability in a lab setting raised an obvious next question: Is there evidence that these viruses are infecting people in the real world
So the researchers started taking blood samples from villagers in China who lived near some of the bat caves they'd been studying
Hongying Li is an ecologist with EcoHealth Alliance
She says there were any number of ways these people seemed at risk of inadvertently coming into contact with bat saliva
"In some places you could find bats roosting in people's homes," she says
'Once a bat flew into my house and I killed it' or 'Bats ate the fruits in my backyard.' "
The caves were a particularly popular hangout in the summer
we'd usually see people's beer bottles and water bottles," says Li
She and her colleagues checked the villagers' blood for signs of recent infections with bat coronaviruses
The team did this again with people in some other rural areas
"we found coronaviruses that had already spilled over into the human population."
These were multiple mini-outbreaks that had gone undetected
Olival says this discovery was a huge red flag: "The signal is there that these SARS-related viruses were jumping into people even if they weren't causing any noticeable disease."
but health authorities simply never picked up on it
Which brings us to this current coronavirus outbreak
EcoHealth Alliance's longtime collaborators in China (principally researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital) compared the new virus with the bat samples they'd collected
"A viral taxonomist would probably call that the same virus species," says Olival
That suggests this current outbreak — which has infected tens of thousands of people — could have come directly from bats
the larger takeaway is clear: "These bat SARS-related coronaviruses are actively spilling over in the human population."
Not all of them will spark deadly pandemics
NPR reporter Michaeleen Doucleff and senior editor Jane Greenhalgh contributed to this report
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A historian known for his account of the development of quantum mechanics from the 1950s to the 1990s discusses the important role of dissent for the advancement of scientific knowledge
“The role of the history of science is to show that science develops in a pattern of advances and retreats, of controversy and disputes”
Personal archive Freire with French physicist and philosopher Michel Paty, in Salvador, 2005Personal archive
Personal archive At a general meeting in the early 1980s; Freire was a representative of Bahia’s university professorsPersonal archive
While Brazil was not the ideal setting for this battle
it would be wrong to say it was infertile for developing ideas
Bohm had the opportunity to debate with a number of leading physicists
Argentinean physicist Mario Bunge and French physicist Jean-Pierre Vigier [1920–2004] came to work with him
Belgian physicist Léon Rosenfeld [1904–1974]
who had been Bohr’s right-hand man and was in England at the time
who had brought American physicist Ralph Schiller [1926–2016] as his assistant
Many of these scientists were funded by either USP or CNPq
Bohm coauthored articles with Tiomno in which he further developed the causal interpretation
Here he also had in Mario Schenberg a formidable critic of the causal interpretation
The notion that Brazil was a vacuum made little sense
After reading my papers and the criticism from Amélia Hamburger
The subject was considered a problem more within the realm of philosophy than of physics
a new generation of physicists took up the subject and began to question the ideas proposed by the early founders of quantum mechanics
Experimental developments in the 1980s enabled more sophisticated tests to be performed to evaluate these ideas
All the strangeness predicted by quantum theory has been confirmed
The Irish physicist John Bell [1928–1990] once said “something is rotten in the state of Denmark,” in a subtle play of words alluding to Danish Bohr’s interpretation and the famous line from Hamlet
Bell’s expectations are yet to be confirmed and quantum mechanics has emerged from these experiments healthier than ever before
took issue with its superficial coverage of scientific aspects
suggested that I write a biography about him
but at the time I was engrossed in the ideas that I would write about in The Quantum Dissidents
became known largely for his alternative interpretation to Bohr’s and for establishing dialogue with Eastern thinkers
He produced a wealth of contributions that make him one of the great physicists of the twentieth century
These include a system of collective coordinates deriving from his work during World War II
then published three articles in the late 1940s that have been widely cited by other authors
They developed a model that was incorporated in the papers on nuclear physics that earned Aage Bohr—Niels Bohr’s son—Ben Mottelson
and Leo Rainwater the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1975
There is also Bohm’s work with Yakir Aharonov
in which they describe the Aharonov–Bohm effect
I also intend to discuss another aspect that was barely touched upon in Peat’s biography: Bohm lived for almost 30 years as Brazilian citizen
the US consulate confiscated his passport and said it would only be returned if he were to return to the US
Bohm feared he would be arrested if he went back
The one place Bohm did not want to go to was the US
but he wanted to travel the world and debate his interpretation of quantum mechanics
“In the scientific community there seems to be a notion that science is done by white
Bohm had Brazilian friends who were well connected to the political world: José Leite Lopes [1918–2006]
João Alberto Lins de Barros [1897–1955]—Getúlio Vargas’ right-hand man—and Admiral Álvaro Alberto [1889–1976]
They arranged for Bohm to acquire Brazilian citizenship in record time—just two or three months
One thing that is not explored in Peat’s book is that the US consulate kept trying to get information about Bohm’s citizenship from the São Paulo police
until eventually the police had no choice but to confirm his status as a Brazilian citizen
US authorities promptly stripped him of his US citizenship and from that point on Bohm lived as a Brazilian citizen
He broke with the communist party following the 1956 invasion of Hungary and news of Stalin’s crimes [1878–1956]
he made plans to return to the US as McCarthyism began to recede
the US consulate handed him a statement proclaiming he was no longer a communist
When they then said he would need to make a public statement
Bohm refused because he did not think it ethical
He was only able to obtain short-term visas to visit the United States
although he made the decision not to go back and live there
he would scratch out “American” and write “Brazilian.”
which was why I chose electrical engineering
I only got involved in politics after I entered university in 1972 because of my own cultural restlessness and because of the student movements
I joined PCdoB in 1973 and remained an active member during my time at the university
My political involvement peaked in Camaçari
a working-class city in which PCdoB had gained a strong presence
With the end of the dictatorship and the introduction of direct elections
Luiz Caetano was elected mayor and I became chief of staff
I realized I was less than enthusiastic about party politics and decided to pursue a master’s degree
At first I divided my time between academic and political activities
I served as president of PCdoB in São Paulo and participated in political campaigns
Gradually I realized that my interest in science was greater
I was invited to work at the then Ministry of Science and Technology
but I was about to win a scholarship in the US and declined
I was appointed to a post at the Office of the National Council for Science and Technology
I spent two years there and then decided to leave
Since then my interests have essentially been in the history of science
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Explore our Food Tours →
Fruit orchards and vineyards line the driveway
and the impressive mountains of Montejunto contribute to the scenic view
making this area one hour north of Lisbon a paradise for grapes
and cousins Joana and José Vivas are there to greet us
to learn more about the natural wines made by Joana
and how they have opened the grounds to other natural winemakers
fostering a collaborative community of like-minded individuals
The Lisbon region is one of the most productive wine regions in Portugal
but the quality of these wines hasn’t always been the best
Murta started out with 100 hectares of vineyards; now
The oldest mention of the farm dates back to 1909
but it was only in 1940 that their great-grandfather Manuel Vivas
the Vivas have transformed this large family estate into a small winery specializing in low-intervention natural wines
Joana is now the winemaker and leads the wine production with José
Together with their other cousins Francisco
they decided to put the farm on the map again
with a focus on high-quality grapes and natural winemaking
They specifically chose organic farming and are happy they did so: “With grapes and wines
the chemical influence is even more noticeable
we couldn’t do it the conventional way,” says José
cultivating aromatic herbs and fruit trees
They also make seasoning specialties such as wine salt (DOP sea salt from Tavira in a reduction of their wines) and oregano salt
The cousins have inherited quite an extensive property
The main winery hides a complex fermentation system of old cement vats (called Algeria amphorae) where the grapes used to be vinified back when their grandfather was producing large quantities of wine
These gigantic units need 18 to 20 tons of grapes to work properly
“The scale and the dimension of winemaking that used to be done here is like comparing cooking in a canteen to cooking for a family,” explains Joana
Both Joana and José have fond memories of busy harvest times
like an explosion up in the tanks and we would run to see the all the mix going down from a kind of upper pool to the deposit
We still remember the smell and that noise,” says Joana
“Another favorite activity was coming here to taste the grape juice and to check the density and alcohol level with our grandfather,” adds José
Since the winemaking process has been scaled down
which are easier to work with and more aligned with their aims. But Joana and José wanted to try the old method last year
including one who still works and lives on the property
“It was really tough work – we went with Francisco [one of their cousins] inside the deposit and the three of us together removed the [mashed grapes] through the tiny doors,” says Joana
“It was so hot and there was so much C02 inside that we had to come out often to breath and get some fresh air
Yet all the old facilities are being preserved
including another area with a distillery to make aguardente (brandy) – perhaps the historic stills will inspire the family to make a small museum in the future
it’s worth visiting the farm for a wine tasting of Serra Oca
the brand that the cousins created for their wine (Quinta da Murta
is already registered by another producer)
Serra Oca means something along the lines of “hollow mountain range” and is inspired by Portuguese writer José Saramago’s descriptions of Montejunto in his book Memorial do Convento (Baltasar and Blimunda in English)
They currently make two amber (sometimes referred to as “orange”) wines with skin contact (curtimenta in Portuguese)
which offer a distinctive expression of the terroir: fresh
and influenced by the mountains and the Atlantic
fernão pires and moscatel graúdo varieties
they have two types: the monovarietal castelão and a blend with castelão
the cousins decided to open up the premises to other producers (there are many warehouses and buildings on the property to house workers
as the winery was originally quite isolated)
transforming the quinta into a community of natural winemakers who share the same philosophy and love for nature
In one of the larger buildings we find Tiago Teles and António Marques da Cruz
who are now making wine together under their COZs label in Murta
“This cooperation is natural to us – we’re learning with each other
and lending machines to them and vice versa.”
“They are now part of the family,” José says
“They have really adopted us,” Tiago responds
There’s clearly an easy friendship and camaraderie between them
“This cooperation is natural to us – we’re learning with each other
and lending machines to them and vice versa,” António adds
It almost feels as if this harmony seeps into the wines made here
Tiago and António first connected at a wine event in Porto
had mutual friends and started working together in 2015 but it feels like we have been friends for a long time
each was already producing wines of their own: Tiago had started making Gilda in 2012 and later Maria da Graça
began working as a winemaker at his family’s vineyard in 1989 and is the producer of Quinta da Serradinha
one of the first wines certified as organic
which in Portugal only became a reality for wine in 1994
they thought organic meant without alcohol,” António remembers
in 2015 – they teamed up to revive the abandoned vineyards at Quinta dos Cozinheiros (hence the name) in the Figueira da Foz area
“We share the same views and values about winemaking
and we have the same love for the land and the vineyards,” says António
they ran into some issues at the original vineyards and decided to purchase some vines in Montejunto in 2017
until they found Quinta do Olival da Murta
“We had so much space and so many warehouses that it became the perfect spot for [António and Tiago] to work,” Joana says
since Tiago lives in Lisbon and António in Leiria
we couldn’t imagine what we have now,” says António as we chat in their brand new winery
ready at the last minute for this year’s harvest
It’s huge and has four new wine vats in cement
“All these wines should be oxygenated through a porous material like wood
and cement is the lesser porous [of the three],” António explains
They are using the cement to store the white wine while the reds are kept in wooden barrels
the duo is looking forward to the natural wines made in the new space (COZs Pop is made with only Vital grapes
The Vivas have built a true natural wine hub
with the potential for more interesting projects on the horizon – other wine and cider producers are already working on the farm
And this new generation of natural winemakers is reinvigorating the industry
who wrote about wines before he started making them
put it best in his book Wines With Terroir: “The producer is the craftsman who dates Nature
who disciplines the wild temperament of fermentation so that
we can make contact with a civilized and passionate liquid.”
Editor’s note: Inspired by our Wine Clubs in Tbilisi, Lisbon and Athens and the grape harvest season
we have asked our correspondents to share the stories of winemakers and wine shops that are making a splash in their city for our Wine Week 2020
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Greek market is ‘potentially the biggest and most important’ for the International Shipping Register of Madeira
according to regional executive director Carla Olival
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Metrics details
Zoonoses originating from wildlife represent a significant threat to global health
and combatting their emergence is a public health priority
our understanding of the mechanisms underlying their emergence remains rudimentary
Here we update a global database of emerging infectious disease (EID) events
create a novel measure of reporting effort
and fit boosted regression tree models to analyze the demographic
environmental and biological correlates of their occurrence
we show that zoonotic EID risk is elevated in forested tropical regions experiencing land-use changes and where wildlife biodiversity (mammal species richness) is high
We present a new global hotspot map of spatial variation in our zoonotic EID risk index
and partial dependence plots illustrating relationships between events and predictors
Our results may help to improve surveillance and long-term EID monitoring programs
and design field experiments to test underlying mechanisms of zoonotic disease emergence
the study is limited in its mechanistic inference due
to the lack of specificity of the predictors
the effect of population density could represent anthropogenic environmental changes (human pressure on landscapes)
a range of potential mechanisms may not be adequately represented by this predictor set; a lack of an effect of rainfall
does not discount the potential for other climatic factors to play a role
and a lack of an effect of latitude could mean that it is simply a poor proxy for other more meaningful factors that nevertheless exhibit some latitudinal variation (e.g.
Improving the predictor set to better target underlying mechanisms could improve model performance and our ability to explain spatial variation in EID risk
and included numerous data sets on measures of land use
all data sets with sufficient temporal coverage were matched to events in the EID database by decade
such that covariates more accurately reflect the prevailing conditions at the time of disease emergence
We also constructed a novel proxy of reporting effort to match the spatial resolution of the other predictors
where previous studies have relied on coarse
and compared EID risk predictions with and without corrections for reporting effort
we accounted for spatial uncertainty in EID event data by random resampling to explicitly take into account the difficulties of accurately geocoding EID events
Our results suggest that EID events are best predicted by the distribution of tropical forested regions
and variables relating to shifts in agricultural land use; and appear to occur more often in tropical regions
We identify specific areas and approaches where a research focus may identify more specific trends not apparent in our data
Heat maps of predicted relative risk distribution of zoonotic EID events. a shows the predicted distribution of new events being observed (weighted model output with current reporting effort); b shows the estimated risk of event locations after factoring out reporting bias (weighted model output reweighted by population). See Fig. 4 for raw weighted model output
Maps were created using standard deviation scaling
the weighted model had a median AUC of 0.78 (90% CI (0.75
0.81)) and a median TSS of 0.43 (90% CI (0.37
The unweighted model evaluated against to an unweighted null
0.81)) and a median TSS of 0.44 (90% CI (0.37
Reporting effort appears to be associated with urbanization
but reporting effort and urbanization are also both products of human population
We did not attempt to fully disentangle these factors
instead using our measure of reporting effort to present a map of emerging infectious disease hotspots with bias “factored out” (described below in Methods section)
and used various resampling regimes to measure and visualize multiple sources of uncertainty (model uncertainty
and temporal uncertainty of covariates matching with events) and predictive performance
we have attempted to improve how the model accounts for uneven global distribution of surveillance and research on disease event detection (i.e.
This includes an algorithm-based approach to more realistically map reporting effort and shows the significant implications that a finer-scale
sub-national resolution variable for reporting effort can have for a model
we were able to temporally match predictors to events
Despite using a more flexible modeling framework
When differentiating between EID events and a uniformly weighted background sample
our weighted and unweighted models had an AUC of 0.78 and 0.77
indicating moderate predictive performance
against a background sample weighted by reporting effort
our weighted model had an AUC of 0.61 and a TSS of 0.18
These statistics indicate much unexplained variation
While broad changes in zoonotic EID relative risk are evident in the partial dependence plots
in areas of elevated risk CIs are generally wide enough that quantitative relationships remain uncertain
city by city) interpretations of the model’s output
rather noting broad trends in geographic regions and environment types of intererest
Efforts to examine the commonalities of disease emergence may benefit from incorporating host-specific or disease-specific models in a hierarchical approach
allowing certain parameters to vary across diseases
but that our predicted risk is higher in tropical
and have been repeatedly linked to outbreaks of novel EIDs
and human contact with wildlife varies across a landscape
Such an approach will provide a way to identify the fine-scale rules that govern disease emergence and provide a richer understanding of what drives EID risk on-the-ground
a critical extension of this modeling approach
Location data for initial EID emergence events were variable in their geographic specificity
ranging from precise coordinates to broader regions (e.g.
districts) or entire continents depending on details reported in the primary literature
A spatial polygon was created for each event that represented the most precise municipal region the EID event was known to have occurred in
were included in our bootstrap resampling framework; removing those with geographic uncertainty (e.g.
those with only country-level resolution) may artificially inflate the apparent certainty of our model
and our resampling scheme limits their impact to appropriate levels
Events with precise coordinates were also assigned a polygon for consistency of data format
but rather than using a municipal boundary
the event was assigned a 5 km circular buffer zone
EID polygons were subsampled for model fitting as described below
Because our model matches EID events with decadal population and land use data (described below)
we restricted our analyses to decades for which covariate data exist
excluding events before 1970 and leaving n = 147 records for analysis (66% of wildlife zoonosis events)
We created metrics of change for pasture and cropland by calculating the between-decade difference in values for each grid cell for cropland and pasture
For data sets with multiple temporal layers (human population
we included the intersection of available dates in different data sets (decades 1970–2000) and calculated inter-decadal change layers by differencing consecutive decades
All presence and absence samples drawn for each event (see below) were matched to the nearest decadal layers (years ending in 5 were rounded up) and the change layer for the decade they fell in
We summed mammals to a single predictor (livestock mammal headcount) and retained poultry as a discrete predictor
which divides the Earth’s surface into 12 classes
These include different classes of natural ecosystems
urban land and cultivated vegetation (grouped with “Human Activity” above)
open water and snow/ice due to a lack of biologically plausible mechanisms for disease emergence
EarthEnv represents each class as a percentage per grid cell
After excluding a further round of potentially spurious matches
To impute missing data (resulting in a number of zero-value grid cells) and smooth noise in the raw output
we fit a Poisson boosted regression tree model (using human population
and used this to represent reporting effort in our model
This approach produced a layer that adequately represented the underlying data while achieving a similar coverage of grid cells to other layers
they do not produce confidence intervals or p-values
The presence point was from the grid cells overlapped by that event’s polygon
and the absence point from all grid cells; both were weighted by reporting effort (the effect of weighting presence points by reporting effort made little difference for points with small
and for events with high uncertainty it acted as a prior
the event was more likely detected where reporting effort was higher)
the BRTs composing the bootstrap model fit a mean of 1005 trees
Our main model used a bootstrap resampling regime
which was used to fit 1000 replicate models
147 events were drawn randomly with replacement from the set the 147 EID events of interest
1 presence and 1 absence value were drawn as described above
The fitted models were used to generate Relative Influence box plots and Partial Dependence plots with empirical 90% confidence intervals
The mean of the predictions of these models were used to generate all maps
a single presence and absence sample were drawn for each event
which were assigned randomly to ten groups
and a model was trained on the remaining groups’ samples
The model’s predictions for the presence and absences samples of the held-out group were used to construct confusion matrices
0.05 and 0.95 quantiles for all scores were reported
this generally means dividing by the measured “survey effort”
assuming that the optimal distribution of search effort is uniform across the landscape
uniform search effort across a landscape is also suboptimal
and that it is safer to assume optimal reporting effort distribution would be proportional to the human population
we remove “bias” by factoring out measured reporting effort and factoring in assumed optimal effort
and obtain a hypothetical map of the true event risk index
The data sets analyzed during this study are included in this published article and its Supplementary Information Files
with the exception of EID Event shape files
which are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request
in Tropical Conservation: Perspectives on Local and Global Priorities (eds Aguirre
Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC).. Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project (GRUMP), v1. Available at: http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/data/collection/grump-v1 (2015)
A global 1-km consensus land-cover product for biodiversity and ecosystem modelling
PubMed Central FTP Service. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/tools/ftp/ (2017)
Wick, M. GeoNames. Available at: http://www.geonames.org (2017)
Variation in demersal fish species richness in the oceans surrounding New Zealand: an analysis using boosted regression trees
Allen, T. ecohealthalliance/hotspots2: “Global correlates” paper. Available at doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.400978 (2017)
Allen, T & Breit, N. ecohealthalliance/pubcrawler: “Global correlates” paper. Available at doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.400977 (2017)
Download references
This work was made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Emerging Pandemic Threats PREDICT (Cooperative Agreement No
The natural language processing software described was sponsored by the Department of the Defense
Defense Threat Reduction Agency (Project No
The contents are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or the policy of USAID or the United States Government
and no official endorsement should be inferred
Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology
Grantham Institute – Climate Change and the Environment
ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions
Centre for Biosiversity and Conservation Science
School of Earth and Environmental Sciences
The EID database was updated under P.D.’s supervision
wrote the modeling code and generated the figures
wrote the code to generate the publication bias layer
contributed the mammal species richness data set
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-00923-8
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Once called the "Dutchmen" because of their large noses and large bellies
Ecosystems that have a lot of diverse animals
also tend to have a lot of diverse viruses
And a deer so small you could cradle it like a baby
"Check out the size of it," says virus hunter Kevin Olival as he picks up a ginormous roly-poly
We're in the middle of Malaysia's Borneo rain forest
Olival has brought us here because this is the type of place where pandemics are born
In this series, NPR explores the causes behind our new hyperinfectious era. Join the conversation with the hashtag #KillerViruses or tweet us @NPRGoatsAndSoda
The next troubling outbreak could come from a rain forest like this
And a big reason why: all the crazy animals that live here
Rain forests are the world's secret laboratory — where evolution experiments with body shapes
"It's a biodiversity hot spot," says Olival
an ecologist and evolutionary biologist with the U.S.-based nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance
This rich diversity in the rain forest doesn't apply to just creatures we can see
The world is now in uncharted territory when it comes to infectious diseases. We're facing a whole new era. Over the past century, the number of new infectious diseases cropping up each year has nearly quadrupled. The number of outbreaks per year has more than tripled
we have seen more than a dozen new human diseases appear over the past 25 years
a killer tick-borne virus showed up in Kansas in 2014
A new type of leprosy dismembered a man in Arizona in 2002
And a new hemorrhagic fever jumped from rodents into people
killing three women in California in 1999 — to name just a few
But it's the tropical rain forest that is the most worrisome to many scientists like Olival
Wearing a headlamp and a khaki shirt with the words "Virus Hunter" embroidered on the back
Olival looks like Indiana Jones' nerdy brother
He is constantly talking about how much he loves bats and admits he picked up his future wife by wowing her with his bat knowledge
He flies around the world collecting undiscovered viruses — and he focuses his hunt on viruses with the potential to kill
It's part of a $200 million project called PREDICT
government and led by University of California
The goal is to figure out the viruses that are lurking inside animals around the world
So we are ready when a new and potentially harmful virus jumps from animals into people and causes an outbreak
Olival wants to find the next pandemic virus before it finds us
Olival and his team are out here in Borneo setting up traps to catch animals
And they have strung thin nylon nets high in the trees
Bats are the key pollinators for more than 500 kinds of plants
"We've got one," yells Olival's colleague Jimmy Lee
Dangling in the middle is one of the most beautiful sights to a virus hunter: a bat
Lee puts on thick gloves and starts to untangle the bat from the net
as he holds the little creature gently in his hands
The bat — a short-nose fruit bat — looks uncannily like a brown puppy
especially as it wraps its wings around its body like a little blanket
But you wouldn't want to snuggle with this little guy
Bats are arguably one of the most dangerous animals in the world
They carry a daunting list of killer viruses
They likely triggered the Ebola outbreak in West Africa
They very likely launched a pandemic of killer pneumonia back in 2003
And they're behind one of the viruses scientists think could cause a nasty pandemic: Nipah
bats can spread these viruses across huge distances
there could be Ebola in the poop that lands on your shoulder
"Bats do a lot of good for the environment
Without bats, the world wouldn't have rain forests. Bats are key pollinators for more than 500 species of flowers and trees
and they keep insect populations in check with their arthropod-rich diets
bats really aren't the ones to blame when it comes to creating outbreaks
It's the intruders into their homes that are the problem
gently spread its wings open and then prick it to get a few drops of blood
They also take a smidge of saliva and then do a quick rectal swab
This Malaysian mouse deer is no bigger than a rabbit
Lee puts the samples in test tubes and drops them into liquid nitrogen
extract genetic material to see if any of it looks like something they haven't seen before
So far, Olival and Lee's team, have trapped and sampled more than 1,300 animals in this region of Malaysia, in partnership with the Sabah Wildlife Department and Danau Girang Field Centre
the PREDICT team has sampled more than 74,000 animals
Some infectious disease scientists think creating a long list of viruses isn't very helpful
They say money could be better spent on diseases we actually have now instead of trying to guess which ones might become a problem someday
And even if scientists could predict when an outbreak is likely to happen, it might not, says Michael Osterholm
who directs the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy in Minneapolis
"I don't think the actual premise for the PREDICT project — that it will make us better prepared for a pandemic — holds water," Osterholm says
in 2012 scientists predicted that the deadly H5N1 flu was about to jump from birds into people
like make a new or better flu vaccine?" Osterholm asks
We're not even making vaccines for viruses that we know are threats
"How are we going to convince people to invest money into a virus from the remote jungle for which we have no evidence that it has caused any human illness?"
we meet up with Olival at a quiet spot on the edge of the rain forest
He is going to show us what his team has found in all these bats and other animals in Borneo
He opens up his laptop and pulls up data from Malaysia
And 16 that were already known," Olival says as he scrolls down a large spreadsheet
There's a new polio-like virus in orangutans
Teams with PREDICT have been sampling in rain forests around the world for seven years and found nearly 1,000 new viruses in more than 20 countries
many SARS-like viruses in bats across three continents
But not to the animals in the forest," he adds
All these viruses have been circulating in bats
monkeys and rodents for tens of thousands of years
They're just a natural part of the ecosystem of the rain forest
who are generally not harmed by the viruses
they don't magically jump out of the forest," Olival says
we take a short walk from where we're sitting
There's a break in the forest and an overlook of the land below
The rain forest has been eaten away by plantations for palm oil — you know
that inexpensive vegetable oil that is used in crackers
Before the palm oil boom in the 1980s, this was all pristine forest
Filled with all these crazy animals and their viruses
But then people came along and started cutting down the forest
It's like puncturing a balloon filled with viruses, says Barbara Han
a disease ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in New York
Deforestation is closely tied to disease emergence."
Opening Pandora's box: Once pristine rain forest in Borneo
the land on the left has been clear-cut for a palm oil plantation
they create "edges," where people come into contact with animals — and their viruses
more than a third of the Borneo rain forest has been destroyed
About half of that land has turned into palm oil plantations
A similar pattern is happening all over the world
more than half of the world's population is projected to live in the tropics and subtropics
Right now, only 15 percent of the world's rain forests is still intact
Every part of this planet has been modified by people in some way," Olival says
"We're changing the environment in ways that are really unprecedented in human history."
Giving their viruses a chance to jump into us and make us sick
"So it's really the human impact on the environment that's causing these viruses to jump into people," Olival says
Metrics details
Most viral pathogens in humans have animal origins and arose through cross-species transmission
severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV)
Middle East respiratory coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and SARS-CoV-2
have been linked back to various bat species
Despite decades of research into bats and the pathogens they carry
the fields of bat virus ecology and molecular biology are still nascent
thus hindering our ability to anticipate and prepare for the next viral outbreak
we discuss the latest advancements and understanding of bat-borne viruses
reflecting on current knowledge gaps and outlining the potential routes for future research as well as for outbreak response and prevention efforts
further underscores the ongoing threat of bat-borne viral emergence
Publicly available genetic sequence data for bat-derived viruses (database of bat-associated viruses) were pooled and categorized by viral family
large parts of the bat virus diversity remain uncharacterized
and discovery efforts have prioritized virus families with known zoonotic potential such as the Coronaviridae
New viral sequences are constantly discovered across a wide geographic range and in a growing number of bat species; however
there are few downstream studies aimed at functionally characterizing these viruses or the ecological and epidemiological factors of their hosts that may or may not facilitate zoonotic spillover
many virus discovery efforts focus on genus-level or family-level consensus PCR methods to identify close relatives of known human pathogens and sequence only a small
Although these datasets provide valuable information for evolutionary studies and for the design of viral discovery panels for next-generation sequencing
they offer little in terms of functional characterization
preferentially targeting relatives of highly pathogenic viruses limits our ability to discover the next unexpected zoonotic pathogen
few researchers had considered betacoronaviruses as a serious pandemic public health threat
Advances in deep sequencing make unbiased viral discovery more cost-effective and efficient for producing full-length genomes of novel viruses
thus promising a new era of bat virus genomics
A parsimonious explanation for this is persistent infection in one or more individuals
knowledge gaps on bat reservoir species and their flight behaviour
immunity and metabolism obscure how bat metabolism relates to immunity
Viral replication and shedding in bats in combination with an apparent lack of disease may allow for the efficient maintenance and dissemination of viruses
Some of these studies have shown dampened immune responses in bats
whereas others have shown heightened responses to infection
The consequences of these differences for overall pathology in bats are still to be determined
A notable finding common to all of these studies is that
all of the bat cell lines tested support filovirus infection
suggesting that the innate immune pathways assessed in these cell culture assays do not form barriers to infection
conclusions regarding general features of bat immunity and their implications for viral infection should be reserved
the complex evolutionary history between bats and their viruses plays a role in how and when the bat immune system is stimulated in response to viral infection; thus
broad conclusions from single pathogen and single host studies should remain tempered
there is an urgent need for more cell culture reagents that can better facilitate virus isolation
either new cell lines capable of supporting replication of bat viruses or genetically modified versions of existing cells
to increase their susceptibility to viral infection with bat viruses
these new cell lines should be derived from a wide range of species and tissues
organoid systems incorporating multiple cell types within a 3D architecture to reproduce tissue-specific functional properties could potentially facilitate the translation from in vitro single-cell type studies to organ-specific host–pathogen interaction studies
live animal models will also be crucial for understanding the implications of molecular findings in bat cells for the course of infection in the natural host
and the results of this effort will undoubtedly be an invaluable resource in elucidating specific bat–pathogen interactions
Many of the earliest studies of bat immunity focused on the humoral adaptive immune response in bats
yet we still lack an understanding of the regulation of B cell proliferation
affinity maturation and the mechanisms underlying the transitory nature of bat antibody responses
Countless studies have conducted serological surveillance for antibodies to specific viruses in wild bats; however
there is relatively little experimental data with bats as a model system
particularly spanning longer periods of time
The information available from field-collected samples is limited by the unknown history of sampled bats with regard to their reproductive status
with any number of pathogens potentially influencing the immune response
showing that the paradigm that bats are resistant to highly pathogenic viruses should be addressed at the level of specific host–pathogen interactions rather than as a generalization for a complete animal order
Comparative studies between animal models of human disease and bat animal models are needed to understand the mechanisms responsible for the differences in disease severity of bat-borne viruses observed in natural reservoir and spillover host species
Viruses rely on numerous interactions with the host cell machinery in order to replicate and transmit
Virus–host interactions occur at every stage of the viral life cycle
genomic replication and protein expression
While many factors involved are still unknown
some well-described examples are indicated
One of the first major virus–host protein interactions that occurs during the course of infection is at the level of viral cell entry
when the virus interacts with the host receptor to facilitate the release of viral components into the cytoplasm
this process can involve one or more viral proteins
one or more host components and encompass several steps occurring at the cell surface or at an internalized membrane
the ability to use conserved host receptors and readily adapt to receptor variation between species are two hallmarks of viruses that have spilled over into the human population
in addition to the rapid mutation rate characteristic of many RNA viruses
recombination provides an additional mechanism to rapidly overcome barriers in novel host species
Although the post-entry species barriers that limit host breadth for lentiviruses and influenza viruses are likely different from those that limit host breadth for the emerging bat-borne infectious diseases
the research framework for these well-studied host–pathogen systems can serve as a roadmap for research into bat-borne host–pathogen systems
mostly based on the targeted amplification of viral sequences or sometimes metagenomics
stops after the identification of novel viral sequences in animals
Large-scale functional screens of viruses in vitro will facilitate transmission and pathogenesis studies in vivo and ultimately lead to the development of ‘One Health’ intervention strategies
such as vaccination of humans or reservoirs or intermediate animal hosts
as well as other measures to reduce the risk of contact and viral transmission at the animal–human interface
Other platforms based on VSV or adenovirus are already FDA approved and have been shown to be effective in several species and for most of the major emerging viruses identified to date
Applying similar efforts to other viruses in lesser-studied and more remote bat populations and other mammals will require a greater understanding of host ecology and behaviour
we have identified the important progress made in the past decade and the gaps remaining in our understanding of bat virus ecology
genetic diversity and the molecular mechanisms underlying zoonotic infection and immunity
The emergence and re-emergence of zoonotic bat pathogens demonstrates the inextricable link between the health of humans
efforts to mitigate the public health impacts of bat-borne viruses must integrate research across these disciplines
The future of bat virus research lies in a combined and concerted effort to evaluate the molecular and macro-ecological risk factors of transmission
shine light on which viruses carry the potential to spill over and conduct large-scale
longitudinal surveillance studies that will support the deployment and evaluation of next-generation interventions
the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 continues to present new and sobering challenges
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has clearly demonstrated that a dramatic increase in knowledge on pathogen emergence combined with a rapid all-out aggressive response aimed at tracing zoonotic spillover events is needed to prevent the repetition of current events
such information is advancing our ability to pinpoint potential hotspots of zoonotic spillover and identify new host reservoirs
Filoviruses in bats: current knowledge and future directions
Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus in bats
The first study to report a partial Ebola virus genomic sequence from a survey of African fruit bats
A Recently discovered pathogenic paramyxovirus
is present in Rousettus aegyptiacus fruit bats at multiple locations in Uganda
Fatal swine acute diarrhoea syndrome caused by an HKU2-related coronavirus of bat origin
Demonstrates how a coronavirus transmitted from bats to pigs
leading to a severe outbreak that impacted the global pig industry
A novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) causing pneumonia-associated respiratory syndrome
Viral zoonotic risk is homogenous among taxonomic orders of mammalian and avian reservoir hosts
Host and viral traits predict zoonotic spillover from mammals
The transmission of paralytic rabies in trinidad by the vampire bat (Desmodus Rotundus Murinus Wagner
An outbreak of rabies in Trinidad without history of bites
and with the symptoms of acute ascending myelitis
Bats are natural reservoirs of SARS-like coronaviruses
First evidence of lineage B betacoronaviruses circulating in bats
Shows that a lineage B betacoronavirus from bats can directly use the human receptor
further providing evidence that an intermediate host may not be necessary for coronavirus spillover into humans
Isolation of Nipah virus from Malaysian Island flying-foxes
Characterization of Nipah virus from naturally infected Pteropus vampyrus bats
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Bat origins of MERS-CoV supported by bat coronavirus HKU4 usage of human receptor CD26
Marston, D. A. et al. Complete genome sequence of Lleida Bat Lyssavirus. Genome Announc. https://doi.org/10.1128/genomeA.01427-16 (2017)
New world bats harbor diverse influenza A viruses
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The discovery of Bombali virus adds further support for bats as hosts of ebolaviruses
DBatVir: the database of bat-associated viruses
Temporal and spatial limitations in global surveillance for bat filoviruses and henipaviruses
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Ecological dynamics of emerging bat virus spillover
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This study synthesizes across disciplines and reveals the complex factors leading to Hendra virus spillover from flying foxes in Australia
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Environmental drivers of spatiotemporal foraging intensity in fruit bats and implications for Hendra virus ecology
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Modelling filovirus maintenance in nature by experimental transmission of Marburg virus between Egyptian rousette bats
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Modelling mechanisms of henipavirus circulation in fruit bat hosts
Bats as ‘special’ reservoirs for emerging zoonotic pathogens
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Virological and serological findings in Rousettus aegyptiacus experimentally inoculated with vero cells-adapted Hogan strain of Marburg virus
Lack of Marburg virus transmission from experimentally infected to susceptible in-contact Egyptian fruit bats
Oral shedding of Marburg virus in experimentally infected Egyptian fruit bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus)
with special reference to the clinical course and the latency of infection
Immunological control of viral infections in bats and the emergence of viruses highly pathogenic to humans
and immunohistochemical characterization of experimental Marburg Virus Infection in a natural reservoir host
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Dampened NLRP3-mediated inflammation in bats and implications for a special viral reservoir host
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Type III IFNs in pteropid bats: differential expression patterns provide evidence for distinct roles in antiviral immunity
Egyptian rousette bats maintain long-term protective immunity against Marburg virus infection despite diminished antibody levels
Experimental rabies virus infection of big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus)
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Small molecule inhibitors reveal Niemann-Pick C1 is essential for Ebola virus infection
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Discovery of a rich gene pool of bat SARS-related coronaviruses provides new insights into the origin of SARS coronavirus
A permanent host shift of rabies virus from Chiroptera to Carnivora associated with recombination
Intrinsic host restrictions to HIV-1 and mechanisms of viral escape
APOBEC3G polymorphism as a selective barrier to cross-species transmission and emergence of pathogenic SIV and AIDS in a primate host
The role of the antiviral APOBEC3 gene family in protecting chimpanzees against lentiviruses from monkeys
Influenza A virus PB1-F2 protein prolongs viral shedding in chickens lengthening the transmission window
SARS-like coronavirus WIV1-CoV does not replicate in Egyptian fruit bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus)
Experimental inoculation of Egyptian fruit bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus) with Ebola virus
Bharaj, P. et al. The host E3-ubiquitin ligase TRIM6 ubiquitinates the Ebola virus VP35 protein and promotes virus replication. J. Virol. https://doi.org/10.1128/JVI.00833-17 (2017)
Inhibition of Lassa and Marburg virus production by tetherin
Tetherin-mediated restriction of filovirus budding is antagonized by the Ebola glycoprotein
Broad-spectrum inhibition of retroviral and filoviral particle release by tetherin
Distinct patterns of IFITM-mediated restriction of filoviruses
Tetherin inhibits Nipah virus but not Ebola virus replication in fruit bat cells
Genetic dissection of Flaviviridae host factors through genome-scale CRISPR screens
A CRISPR screen defines a signal peptide processing pathway required by flaviviruses
A CRISPR activation screen identifies genes protecting from Zika virus infection
A genome-wide CRISPR screen identifies a restricted set of HIV host dependency factors
CRISPR/Cas9 screens reveal epstein-barr virus-transformed B cell host dependency factors
Genome-wide CRISPR/Cas9 Screen Identifies host factors essential for influenza virus replication
A CRISPR activation screen identifies a pan-avian influenza virus inhibitory host factor
Synthetic recombinant bat SARS-like coronavirus is infectious in cultured cells and in mice
Cedar virus: a novel Henipavirus isolated from Australian bats
Rescue and characterization of recombinant cedar virus
Zhang, C. et al. Seroreactive profiling of filoviruses in Chinese bats reveals extensive infection of diverse viruses. J. Virol. https://doi.org/10.1128/JVI.02042-19 (2020)
Functional assessment of cell entry and receptor usage for SARS-CoV-2 and other lineage B betacoronaviruses
An example of an approach to functionally testing many related viruses in parallel
Molecular evolution analysis and geographic investigation of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-like virus in palm civets at an animal market and on farms
Replication and shedding of MERS-CoV in upper respiratory tract of inoculated dromedary camels
Euren, J. et al. Living Safely with Bats. https://www.ecohealthalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Living-Safely-with-Bats_download.pdf (EcoHealth Alliance
Changing resource landscapes and spillover of henipaviruses
Chimpanzee Adenovirus vaccine provides multispecies protection against rift valley fever
A single-dose ChAdOx1-vectored vaccine provides complete protection against Nipah Bangladesh and Malaysia in Syrian golden hamsters
Protective efficacy of a novel simian adenovirus vaccine against lethal MERS-CoV challenge in a transgenic human DPP4 mouse model
Hendra virus and Nipah virus animal vaccines
Rapid development of a DNA vaccine for Zika virus
A randomized controlled trial of interventions to impede date palm sap contamination by bats to prevent nipah virus transmission in Bangladesh
Long-term wildlife mortality surveillance in northern Congo: a model for the detection of Ebola virus disease epizootics
Twenty year experience of the oral rabies vaccine SAG2 in wildlife: a global review
Vaccinating the vampire bat Desmodus rotundus against rabies
Protection of black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) against plague after voluntary consumption of baits containing recombinant raccoon poxvirus vaccine
Outbreaks in a rapidly changing central Africa – lessons from Ebola
Emergence and control of infectious diseases in China
Sampling to elucidate the dynamics of infections in reservoir hosts
The effect of seasonal birth pulses on pathogen persistence in wild mammal populations
Reproduction and nutritional stress are risk factors for Hendra virus infection in little red flying foxes (Pteropus scapulatus)
Date palm sap linked to Nipah virus outbreak in Bangladesh
Recurrent zoonotic transmission of Nipah virus into humans
Spatiotemporal aspects of hendra virus infection in pteropid bats (Flying-Foxes) in Eastern Australia
Conditions affecting the timing and magnitude of Hendra virus shedding across pteropodid bat populations in Australia
Prioritizing surveillance of Nipah virus in India
Predicting the global mammalian viral sharing network using phylogeography
Immunology of bats and their viruses: challenges and opportunities
Experimental rabies virus infection in Artibeus jamaicensis bats with CVS-24 variants
Replication and shedding of MERS-CoV in Jamaican fruit bats (Artibeus jamaicensis)
Experimental Zika virus infection of Jamaican fruit bats (Artibeus jamaicensis) and possible entry of virus into brain via activated microglial cells
Experimental inoculation of Egyptian Rousette bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus) with viruses of the Ebolavirus and Marburgvirus genera
Pathogenesis of bat rabies in a natural reservoir: comparative susceptibility of the straw-colored fruit bat (Eidolon helvum) to three strains of Lagos bat virus
Tacaribe virus causes fatal infection of an ostensible reservoir host
Bat research networks and viral surveillance: gaps and opportunities in Western Asia
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This work was supported (in part) by the Intramural Research Program of the NIH
are supported by the DARPA PREEMPT Program Cooperative Agreement (No
is supported by the USAID Emerging Pandemic Threats PREDICT program
NIH/NIAID award R01AI110964 and a US Defense Threat Reduction Agency award HDTRA11710064
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
The authors contributed equally to all aspects of the article
The authors declare no competing interests
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
reduced risk of infection among susceptible individuals within a population as a result of the majority of that population having immunity through vaccination or a history of exposure or infection
A class of compartmental model used in understanding the dynamics of infectious disease in a population
A large group of related cytokines that bind to widely expressed interferon-α receptors and are responsible for regulating the immune response to infection
A small group of related cytokines that bind to the interferon-λ receptors found on epithelial cells and are responsible for regulating the immune response to infection
A global research initiative to sequence and annotate the genomes of all bat species
starting with more than 1,000 of the most relevant species for global health
Multiple organisms all derived from a single common ancestor
A genetically modified virus that has incorporated the glycoprotein of another virus and can produce a measurable reporter
Experimentally introducing mutations into the genetic sequence of proteins or whole virus and subsequently testing for the effect on various phenotypes either in cell culture or in animals
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-020-0394-z
Metrics details
Understanding interspecific viral transmission is key to understanding viral ecology and evolution
Prior studies have uncovered macroecological drivers of viral sharing
but analyses have never attempted to predict viral sharing in a pan-mammalian context
we confirm that host phylogenetic similarity and geographic range overlap are strong
nonlinear predictors of viral sharing among species across the entire mammal class
we predict global viral sharing patterns of 4196 mammal species and show that our simulated network successfully predicts viral sharing and reservoir host status using internal validation and an external dataset
We predict high rates of mammalian viral sharing in the tropics
and within- and between-order sharing differed geographically and taxonomically
Our results emphasize the importance of ecological and phylogenetic factors in shaping mammalian viral communities
general model to predict viral host range and guide pathogen surveillance and conservation efforts
although phylogenetic and geographic viral sharing effects have been empirically demonstrated
statistical models have not yet been used to validate viral sharing predictions using external datasets or make inferences about mammals with no known viral associations
If geographic and phylogenetic effects on viral sharing are as ubiquitous as they seem
these variables alone could provide a useful baseline model of viral sharing applicable across the mammal class
we analyse pairwise viral sharing using a novel
conservative modelling approach designed to partition the contribution of species-level traits from pairwise phylogeographic traits
This method of analysis stands in contrast to previous studies of mammalian viral sharing
which have mainly focussed on host-level traits
and importantly buffers against certain inherent biases in the observed viral sharing network
These results suggest that ~50% of the dyadic structure of observed viral sharing networks (in contrast to the true underlying network) is determined by uneven sampling and concentration on specific host species
and the remainder by macroecological processes
a Predicted viral sharing probability increases with increasing phylogenetic relatedness; the different coloured lines represent different geographic overlap values
b Predicted viral sharing probability increases with increasing geographic overlap; the different coloured lines represent different phylogenetic relatedness values
c The geographic overlap:phylogenetic similarity interaction surface
where the darker colours represent increased probability of viral sharing
White contour lines denote 10% increments of sharing probability
Labels have been removed from some contours to avoid overplotting
d Hexagonal bin chart displaying the data distribution
which was highly aggregated at low values of phylogenetic similarity and especially of geographic overlap
Their impacts on viral sharing may have been largely accounted for by the species-level random effects
the fact that viral sharing across different viral subgroups was predicted by different macroecological relationships suggest they should be examined separately in future analyses where possible
Top row: all viral sharing links; middle row: viral sharing links with species in the same order; bottom row: viral sharing links with species in another order
e Average species-level viral sharing link numbers for mammalian orders in our dataset
Bars represent means; error bars represent standard errors
f Geographic distributions of mean viral sharing link numbers
Distributions were derived by summing the viral sharing link numbers of all species inhabiting a 25 km2 grid square and dividing them by the number of species inhabiting the grid square
giving mean degree number at the grid level
Efforts to prioritise viral sampling regimes should consider biogeography and mammal–mammal interactions in addition to searching for species-level traits associated with high viral diversity
To augment these approaches representing a promising methodological advance
the network approach captures the additional mechanistic and ecological underpinnings of viral sharing
We therefore interrogated our predicted viral sharing network to investigate whether it could be used to identify potential hosts of known viruses at the species level
the focal host was identified in the top 63 (1.5%) potential hosts
ranked spatial overlap predicted the focal host in the top 560 hosts
and phylogenetic relatedness in the top 174
segmented vs non-segmented) were important in the LMM
This implies that host phylogeographic traits are a good broad-scale indicator of viral sharing
particularly when ecological specifics of the virus itself are unknown
full genome data from hosts) may allow more precise estimates of the phylogenetic relatedness effect on viral sharing
our model could be augmented with additional host
using similar pairwise formulations of viral sharing as a response variable
Such model augmentations may better identify ecological specificities that are critical for the transmission of certain viruses
may increase the accuracy of host predictions
By generalising the spatial and phylogenetic processes that drive viral sharing
our model serves as a useful guide for the prioritisation of viral sampling
presenting a baseline for future modelling efforts to compare against and improve upon
We removed humans and rabies virus from the dataset as both were disproportionately well-connected
and we removed 20 non-Eutherian mammals because they were extreme phylogenetic outliers
leaving 591 Eutherian mammals that shared 401 viruses
We made an unweighted bipartite network using the mammal–virus associations and projected the unipartite mammal–mammal network
which we then converted into a sequence of all unique mammal–mammal pairs where 1/0 denoted whether the pair of species shared a virus or not
This comprised only the lower triangle of the adjacency matrix to avoid duplicating associations and to remove self-connections
and only included mammals with at least one sharing link (final N = 174,345 unique mammal–mammal pairs)
6.4% of these pairs shared at least one virus
We fitted this as a binary pairwise trait where 1 = at least one of the species was domesticated and 0 = neither species had been domesticated
We fitted viral sharing (0/1) as the response variable
and its ability to untangle dyadic and pairwise contributions to viral sharing in a highly interpretable manner
the predictions for viral sharing from such a model could be highly relative and biased
while binary models offer a more appropriate resolution to quantify sharing patterns
We therefore avoided estimating a precise number of viruses shared among pairs of species
To investigate whether the effects of geography and phylogeny depended on which subset of viruses we investigated
we fit the model to non-exclusive subnetworks of mammal–mammal pairs based on the types of viruses they were connected by
Viral subtypes included RNA viruses (566 hosts sharing 381 viruses); vector-borne RNA viruses (333 hosts sharing 164 viruses); non-vector-borne RNA viruses (391 hosts sharing 205 viruses); and DNA viruses (151 hosts sharing 205 viruses)
There were only two vector-borne DNA viruses in our data
We eliminated from each analysis any hosts that were not carrying the focal virus type
We quantified deviance contributions of our explanatory variables by calculating model deviance when dropping each variable
and comparing these against deviance values for the full model and an intercept-only model
For each of our explanatory variables (geographic overlap
and species-level random effects) we randomised the observed values 1000 times
then predicted sharing probabilities for these values using our model estimates
This randomisation procedure allowed us to predict while accounting for the uneven data distribution
We then repeated these taxonomic and geographic summaries using within-order and between-order link numbers separately
which more closely reflect underlying patterns of species richness
We eliminated species pairs that were in our training data and identified whether species pairs that shared viruses in EID2 were more likely to share viruses in our predicted network than species pairs that did not
we investigated whether species that were shown to host zoonoses in our training dataset were more highly-connected in the predicted network
we investigated whether species that were present in only EID2
or in both were more highly-connected in our predicted network than species that did not appear in either dataset and were therefore taken to have not been observed hosting a virus
To investigate the ability of the model to predict known hosts of viruses in our dataset
we iteratively investigated the sharing patterns of known hosts independently for all viruses with >1 host
and then investigated which species the remaining known host species were likely to share viruses based on the all-mammal predicted network
If the removed host (“focal host”) was on average highly likely to share viruses with the remaining species
our model was taken to be useful for predicting patterns of mammalian viral sharing
The mean ranking of the focal hosts across each prediction iteration was used as a measure of “predictability” for each virus
We carried out this process for the 250 viruses with more than one known host with associated geographic and phylogenetic data and then on the 109 such viruses in the EID2 data
Once the predictability of each virus was calculated
we fitted a linear mixed model examining log10(mean focal host rank) as an inverse measure of predictability (higher rank corresponds to decreased predictability) for each virus
We added mean phylogenetic host similarity as a fixed effect and viral family as a random effect to quantify how viral phylogeny affected predictability
We included additional viral traits in the model
including cytoplasmic replication (0/1); segmentation (0/1); vector-borne transmission (0/1); double- or single-strandedness; DNA or RNA; enveloped or non-enveloped; and zoonotic ability (0/1 for whether the virus was associated with humans in our dataset)
Further information on research design is available in the Nature Research Reporting Summary linked to this article
Data for all analyses are available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3745672
Code for all analyses is available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3745672
Spillover and pandemic properties of zoonotic viruses with high host plasticity
Global estimates of mammalian viral diversity accounting for host sharing
Predicting reservoir hosts and arthropod vectors from evolutionary signatures in RNA virus genomes
Taxonomic and life history characteristics
Host traits associated with species roles in parasite sharing networks
Phylogenetically related and ecologically similar carnivores harbour similar parasite assemblages
Global spread of helminth parasites at the human-domestic animal-wildlife interface
Parasite sharing in wild ungulates and their predators: effects of phylogeny
A comparative analysis of viral richness and viral sharing in cave-roosting bats
Domesticated animals as hosts of henipaviruses and filoviruses: a systematic review
Nipah virus: a recently emergent deadly paramyxovirus
Parapoxvirus causes a deleterious disease in red squirrels associated with UK population declines
Phylogeny matters: revisiting ‘a comparison of bats and rodents as reservoirs of zoonotic viruses’
Virus evolution and transmission in an ever more connected world
Global expansion and redistribution of Aedes-borne virus transmission risk with climate change
Ecological niche and potential distribution of Anopheles arabiensis in Africa in 2050
IUCN. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2019-2. Available at: https://www.iucnredlist.org (2019)
Database of host–pathogen and related species interactions
Phylogenetic structure of wildlife assemblages shapes patterns of infectious livestock diseases in Africa
Global hotspots and correlates of emerging zoonotic diseases
Dampened STING-dependent interferon activation in bats
Phylogenetic aggregation increases zoonotic potential of mammalian viruses
Epidemic dynamics at the human–animal interface
Unified spatial scaling of species and their trophic interactions
demography and disease dynamics in network models: applications to disease management in declining wildlife populations
Parasite biodiversity faces extinction and redistribution in a changing climate
Range shifts in response to past and future climate change: can climate velocities and species’ dispersal capabilities explain variation in mammalian range shifts
Rapid range shifts of species associated with high levels of climate warming
Carlson, C. J. et al. Climate change will drive novel cross-species viral transmission. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.01.24.918755 (2020)
R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing (R Foundation for Statistical Computing
Fast stable restricted maximum likelihood and marginal likelihood estimation of semiparametric generalized linear models
Social network analysis of wild chimpanzees provides insights for predicting infectious disease risk
Distinct spread of DNA and RNA viruses among mammals amid prominent role of domestic species
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This work was conducted during a placement funded by the National Environmental Research Council (NERC) Overseas Research Fund awarded to G.F.A
G.F.A.’s PhD studentship was likewise funded by NERC (Grant Number: NE/L002558/1)
were funded by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Emerging Pandemic Threats PREDICT project
Additional support was provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (Award Number R01AI110964) and the US Department of Defense
Defense Threat Reduction Agency (HDTRA11710064)
and members of EcoHealth Alliance for advice and helpful comments on the manuscript
conducted the analyses under the supervision of N.R.
offered comments and edits to the manuscript throughout
Peer review information Nature Communications thanks Nicholas Fountain-Jones
reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16153-4
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology (2025)
HOST: Scientists say the current coronavirus outbreak in China was caused by what's called spillover
That's when an animal virus jumps into humans
And coronavirus spillovers were thought to be rare
but researchers working in China say they've found evidence that these spillovers have been happening all along
NPR's Nurith Aizenman reports.NURITH AIZENMAN
BYLINE: We're going to start this story with a scene that NPR actually recorded three years ago in Malaysian Borneo.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)KEVIN OLIVAL: OK
Gloves are on.AIZENMAN: Kevin Olival is at the edge of a rainforest sitting in a makeshift outdoor biology lab
he places a small creature he's just caught - a female bat.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)OLIVAL: It's OK
girl.AIZENMAN: Olival is a disease ecologist with the nonprofit research group EcoHealth Alliance
He starts taking samples of the bat's body fluids.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)OLIVAL: So we're getting the oral swab in the back of the throat
And I'm just holding her head between my two fingers with a leather glove on
There's definitely some sample on that swab.(SOUNDBITE OF BAT SQUEAKING)OLIVAL: That was a reaction to a rectal swab.AIZENMAN: He wants to check these samples for viruses
particularly viruses that have the potential to kick off global outbreaks
So Olival and his colleagues are on the hunt for the next big threat
and it's all done.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)OLIVAL: And now she gets her special treat - a little bit of mango juice as a reward.AIZENMAN: During that same period that NPR recorded this
And Olival says what they found is alarming.OLIVAL: Yeah
so we found evidence for - in total from all the sampling we did in China - about - something like 400 new strains of coronaviruses.AIZENMAN: That means 400 potential candidates to spark another outbreak
A coronavirus caused a massive outbreak in China back in 2002 to 2003 - Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
Scientists had thought spillovers were rare
Bat coronaviruses weren't generally capable of infecting humans
a bat coronavirus had to infect some animal species that had closer contact with people
But the sampling project found all those steps - not needed.OLIVAL: What we showed was that SARS-related viruses in this bat population had the potential to go directly into human cells and do not need sort of that extra mutational step by infecting another host.AIZENMAN: In other words
one of the coronaviruses they found was a very close genetic match for the SARS virus
Olival says the fact that a bat coronavirus had the ability to infect human cells raised an obvious next question.OLIVAL: Is there evidence that those viruses are actually infecting people?AIZENMAN: So the researchers started taking blood samples from villagers in China who lived near some of the bat caves they'd been studying.Hongying Li is an ecologist with EcoHealth Alliance
She says people were in the bat caves all the time
They were a popular local hangout.HONGYING LI: When we went to the caves for sampling
water bottle.AIZENMAN: Li and her colleagues checked the villagers' blood for signs of recent infections with bat coronaviruses
And they did this again with people in some other rural areas
Both times...LI: We find coronaviruses that's already spilled over into human population.AIZENMAN: Multiple outbreaks that had gone undetected
Kevin Olival says this is a huge red flag.OLIVAL: So the - sort of the signal was there that these SARS-related viruses were jumping into people even if they weren't causing any noticeable disease.AIZENMAN: People might have had symptoms
but health authorities never picked up on it
which brings us to this current coronavirus outbreak
EcoHealth Alliance's collaborators in China compared the new virus to the bat samples they'd collected
And they found an extremely close match.OLIVAL: A viral taxonomist would probably call that the same virus species.AIZENMAN: This new outbreak that's infected tens of thousands of people could have come directly from bats
Olival says the larger takeaway is clear.OLIVAL: These bat SARS-related coronaviruses are actively spilling over in the human population.AIZENMAN: Not all of them will spark deadly pandemics
Copyright © 2020 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information
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NoKa Fair in North Kapa‘a celebrated the grand opening of its first phase of development — a retail boardwalk — June 2 during Kapa‘a First Saturday
Sisyphus was condemned to eternally push a huge boulder up a mountain
he saw the rock descend to the starting point
When studying the formation of Brazil's scientific community
social scientist Simon Schwartzman used the metaphor of the myth of Sisyphus to refer to the numerous advances and setbacks in this sector
physicist and science historian Olival Freire Junior studied the Brazilian panorama of the 20th century and created a course that he will offer
within the activities of the Resident Scientist “Cesar Lattes” Program
organized by the Institute of Advanced Studies (IdEA)
IdEA's new resident scientist has a long career in the history of science
being the author of more than 70 articles in specialized journals
including “Quantum theory: Quantum theory: historical studies and cultural implications” (Eduepb and Livraria da Physics
co-edited with Osvaldo Pessoa Junior and Joan Lisa Bromberg and winner of the Jabuti Prize
Your participation in the “Cesar Lattes” Program will consist of the short course “Science in Brazil - The metaphor of the myth of Sisyphus”
starting on October 6th and with a main focus on postgraduate students and researchers
and the lecture “Quantum physics - A giant with feet of clay”
aimed at undergraduate and high school students
about the successes and uncertainties of this field
The history of quantum physics occupies a prominent place in Freire's scientific production
having published in 2019 a biography of the American David Bohm (1917-1992)
entitled “David Bohm - A Life Dedicated to Understand the Quantum World” (Springer)
“My expectations are very high because I will talk about a topic to which I am now almost entirely dedicated – history of science in Brazil in the 20th century – to an audience at one of the largest universities in the country
My previous experiences of presenting at Unicamp
have always been very rewarding intellectually and culturally; I have always learned a lot from each interaction here”
stated Olival Freire to the Unicamp Portal
The first Brazilian appointed to the board of the History of Science Society
Freire has just published an article on the history of science and technology in Brazil in the 1978th century for the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History
Freire graduated in physics in 1991 from the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA)
with a master's degree in physics teaching (1995) and a doctorate in social history (1979)
both from the University of São Paulo (USP)
Full professor at the UFBA Institute of Physics
Creation and Innovation at the institution
Olival Freire Junior points out that there are still significant gaps in the historical knowledge of Brazilian science
and that these studies need to reach a wider audience through scientific dissemination
it is necessary to move forward so as not to repeat what has been happening over the last 1980 years
when Brazil was condemned to reliving the myth of Sisyphus
as pointed out by Schwartzman in the XNUMXs
“For the development of science in Brazil to dissociate itself from this metaphor
a change of mentality in Brazilian society is necessary
we have sometimes oscillated between strengthening and weakening support for science within the framework of the same regime
The necessary change of mentality involves understanding science as activities that can contribute decisively to the economic
cultural and political development of a country”
Regarding the important achievements of Brazilian science with socioeconomic impacts
consolidated over the last century and which contradict the short-sighted spirit that often guides governments on duty
the UFBA professor mentions geophysics for oil exploration
aerospace engineering and research agriculture
“Certainly the agendas of political mandates are shorter than the agendas required for scientific development
as well as the agendas required for the improvement of social and infrastructure conditions”
but especially changes in mentalities regarding what values Brazilian society wants to cultivate and pursue.”
after whom IdEA's Resident Scientist Program is named
etched his name in the history of science as one of the greatest physicists in Brazil
Graduated in 1943 from the Faculty of Philosophy
Sciences and Letters at the University of São Paulo (USP)
he became interested in experimental physics
dedicating himself to the study of cosmic rays
A full professor in the Department of Physics at USP since 1959
Find out more about the biography of physicist and science historian Olival Freire Junior
Short course “Science in Brazil - The metaphor of the myth of Sisyphus”
Discover the Resident Scientist's "Cesar Lattes" Program
Delegation learned about research carried out at Unicamp and expressed interest in international cooperation
The show class with chef and gastrologist Tibério Gil on the role of nutrition and gastronomy in contemporary women's health
opened the program that runs until Friday (8)
the occupation of command positions is still unequal between men and women
with six places offered each year in the first two periods; the offer increases to nine beneficiaries in the following two years
The publications are divided in a didactic manner into the themes General Women's Health
Obstetric Health and Adolescent Women's Health
a political commitment in favor of the solution is necessary and the Brazil can play an extremely important role in global environmental solutions
the sociologist was president of the National Association of Postgraduate Studies and Research in Social Sciences in the 2003-2004 biennium
Webmail
Wi-Fi networks
User Services Charter
Information Security Policy
That's the word that comes to mind when you hear how many viruses are likely hiding out around the world in animals
"We expect there are hundreds of thousands of mammalian viruses out there," says Kevin Olival
"Any given mammal species is likely to have 20
The good news is that not all those viruses can infect humans
tiny fraction are likely ever to be a public health problem
So how do you know which ones are harmless and which ones we should be concerned about
Olival and his colleagues have taken a few steps to start answering that question
the team offers the most comprehensive view to date of where viruses are hiding around the globe and which species are most likely harbor risky ones
The study, published Wednesday
also estimates how many "missing" viruses are out there in the world — viruses that we know are in animals and can possibly jump into people
he and his team scoured studies and databases to create a list of all known viruses in mammals on Earth
They ended up with nearly 600 unique viruses found in about 750 species
About a third of the viruses had the ability to jump from mammals into people
primates and rodents carry the largest proportions of zoonotic viruses
The researchers found two factors that likely boost the chance an animal transmits a virus to people: how closely related the animal is to humans and how much time that animal spends in urban areas
are going to be higher risks," Olival says
"And so will animals that come into contact with people often."
They also found that the more promiscuous the virus — that is
the more species it can infect — the more likely it is to end up in people
Olival and his team then used this viral catalog to start predicting where unknown zoonotic viruses are likely hiding
"Most of them are in the tropics," Olival says
bat viruses are concentrated primarily in South America
where there's a high diversity of bat species
Primate viruses are mostly in central Africa and patches of Southeast Asia
"North America is not exempt from zoonotic viruses," Olival says
Specifically the researchers predict there's a high-risk zone of rodent viruses on around the Rocky Mountains. And this finding actually matches up with results from a study back in 2015, which predicted a hot spot for rodent viruses in Nebraska and Kansas
So what does this mean for people living in the middle of the country? Should they stay away from rodents? "I wouldn't go snuggle up with a rodent. But I wouldn't be afraid," says Barbara Han
we're still far from predicting whether a particular animal virus is dangerous for people
Most of these "missing" viruses have likely been circulating in the animals for centuries
But communities should keep these virus hot spots in mind when they make plans to expand
if we're interested in tearing up a bunch of pristine habitat in the Midwest
we should just know that there are a lot of rodent species there," she says
"If you put a bunch of humans into that habit
the consequences can be huge if it does happen — just as we learned with Ebola in 2014
Leading the way are the electrifying Diego Lainez (Spain’s Real Betis) and Jose Juan Macias (Leon)
Other notable names are Pachuca forward Roberto De La Rosa and Tijuana goalie Carlos Higuera
Mexico’s Under-20 team of Mexico is headed to the World Cup in Poland next month with lots of rising young stars on the roster
Midfielder Jonathan Gonzalez was left off the team after his club – Monterrey – told Federation officials that Gonzalez would be needed for the playoffs
Also overlooked was striker Joao Maleck
a hidden gem who currently plays with Sevilla B in Spain’s second division
He recently returned to the field after a knee injury suffered in early March
The injury and his lack of playing time were a factor in the team’s decision to pass on Maleck
though he has played with the Under-18 and Under-20 teams
El Tri could have featured Mexico’s scoring stars of the future
Maleck was born in Guadalajara (his father is a naturalized Frenchman from Cameroon who came to Mexico in 1998 to play for the Tecos of Guadalajara) and started out in the Chivas academy before finding a spot with Santos Laguna
He helped lead the Guerreros’ U-17 team to a league title and scored 21 goals in 44 games
He then played one season with Santos’ U-20 team before signing with Portugal’s Porto where he played with their academy teams in 2017 and 2018
Spain’s Sevilla then negotiated a deal with Porto and Santos
but a bureaucratic snafu deprived him of eligibility until January and his injury came only two months later
Although Maleck would be eligible to play with Mexico
the young winger has insisted he only wants to play for El Tri
El Tri is in Group B and will first play Italy on May 23
then face Japan on May 26 and finish group play against Ecuador on May 29
Mexico can get out of the group stage and continue in the tournament in a strong stance
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Also overlooked was striker Joao Maleck
A network of correspondents providing impartial news
reports and analysis in 33 languages from locations around the world
Up-to-the-minute news and analysis from around the world and in Chicago
Hosted by WBEZ's Mary Dixon and NPR's Steve Inskeep
Newshour is the award-winning flagship program of the BBC World Service
the world’s largest news gathering operation
1A convenes a conversation about the most important issues of our time
smart reflection on world news as it’s happening
innovators and artists from around the globe
with news from Chicago from WBEZ’s Lisa Labuz
Reset digs into how the news has moved since you left the house
discussing and unpacking the biggest stories and issues in Chicago and beyond right in the heart of the day
Fresh Air is a weekday “talk show” that hardly fits the mold
Fresh Air Weekend collects the week’s best cultural segments and crafts them together for great weekend listening
The show is produced by WHYY and hosted by Terry Gross
and features from Chicago and around the world
Hosted by WBEZ’s Melba Lara and NPR’s Ailsa Chang
A daily take on business and economics news for the rest of us
hosted by Michael Barbaro and powered by The New York Times’ journalism
7pm Hour -- A focus on what’s changed here in the U.S
since President Trump was inaugurated -- looking at everything from the culture to the shape of the federal government
From tariffs to the downsizing of the Department of Education
how has Trump made good on his campaign promises
From shifting alliances to trade agreements to changes at the U.S
we’ll ask how President Trump has altered international relations since January 20
Covering everything about science and technology — from the outer reaches of space to the tiniest microbes in our bodies — Science Friday is your source for entertaining and educational stories and activities
From their humble beginnings on Chicago’s radio airwaves to their evolution through television and today’s streaming platforms
"Stories Without End" unpacks how soap operas have shaped popular culture and told intergenerational stories that continue to resonate
a new theme and a variety of stories on that theme
Sound Opinions is hosted by Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot
In-depth interviews with brilliant creators
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featuring important established and emerging artists
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The first 50 years of modern advertising was based on hard-sell
The next 50 years was persuasion through creativity and media tonnage
But as advertising squeezed into the 21 century
it was forced to shed its elbowing ways and become a delicate dialogue
The goal is no longer to triumph by weight
CBC's Under the Influence is hosted by Terry O'Reilly
A wrap up of the week's news and a mix of analysis and features on a wide range of topics
Have a laugh and test your news knowledge while figuring out what's real and what we've made up
It's Been a Minute features people in the culture who deserve your attention
Plus weekly wraps of the news with journalists in the know
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and offbeat features from Chicago and around the world
with only a microphone and a roomful of strangers
How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators
entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built
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Your guide to examining how the media sausage is made
Important ideas and practical advice: Code Switch
features fearless and much-needed conversations about race—and Life Kit offers practical advice on things in life no one prepared you for
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Reveal is public radio’s first one-hour radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting
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killer beats and the edgiest new talent in storytelling come together for a weekly show that straps audiences into an audio rollercoaster
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Created in 2002 by former host Jad Abumrad
the program began as an exploration of scientific inquiry
Over the years it has evolved to become a platform for long-form journalism and storytelling
Radiolab is hosted by Lulu Miller and Latif Nasser
Ecologists found signs of Ebola in a Rousettus leschenaultii fruit bat
These bats are widespread across south Asia
A handful of ecologists knew for years that West Africa was at risk for an Ebola outbreak
Now they’re figuring out where else in the world the virus could be hiding
disease ecologist David Hayman made the discovery of a lifetime
He was a graduate student at the University of Cambridge
But he spent a lot of that time hiking through the rain forest of Ghana
when the bats are looking for fruit to feed on
Bats carry a huge number of viruses in their blood
When Hayman took the blood samples back to the lab
he found a foreboding sign: a high level of antibodies against Ebola Zaire
Inside the virus hunter’s lab: Kevin Olival and Mindy Rostal
saliva and fecal samples from Rousettus fruit bats in Costa Rico
Ebola Zaire is the deadliest of the five Ebola species
The antibodies in the bat’s blood meant the animals had once been infected with Ebola Zaire or something related to it
Hayman knew West Africa was at risk for an Ebola outbreak. He and his colleagues even published the findings in the free journal Emerging Infectious Diseases,"so that anyone in the world could go and read them,” Hayman says
He thought health officials would also be worried
“We were all prepared for some sort of response
That was two years ago. Now, with more than 20,000 Ebola cases reported in West Africa
health officials are definitely listening to Hayman
Scientists think bats likely triggered the entire Ebola epidemic in West Africa
“It’s not a good way to proven right,” he says
So now the big question is: Where else in the world is Ebola hiding out in bats
Nipah has outbreaks every few years in Bangladesh
So Olival went there back in 2010 and captured a bunch of bats
Others had something surprising: “There’s antibodies to something related to Ebola Zaire.”
scientists thought Ebola Zaire was found only in Africa
“If you think about geographic space,” Olival says
“it was a big shock to find evidence for this virus in a very faraway place in south Asia.”
Olival and his colleagues published these findings in February 2013. Then, a few months later, a team reportedevidence for the virus in China
The bats with these antibodies have a broad range across south Asia
“These species are found all the way down into parts of Indonesia.”
The data suggest that Ebola Zaire is far more widespread around the world than previously thought
So does that mean Ebola could have outbreaks in Bangladesh
“I think if you have the right combination of potential events
there’s no sign bats have infected people in Asia with Ebola Zaire
And antibody tests can’t say whether the virus in the bats was specifically Ebola Zaire or something related
But Olival isn’t waiting to find out. Both he and David Hayman
who’s now at Massey University in New Zealand
are working on ways to predict when and where Ebola and other deadly viruses will cause outbreaks
In particular, Olival is working with USAID to build an early warning system for dangerous viruses
The system could alert communities when the risk of an outbreak is high
People could be more careful while hunting bats or avoid their guano
“The ultimate goal is to move toward prediction,” Olival says
we’re hearing with the current massive Ebola outbreak that if it was detected earlier it would have been better contained.”
Because both ecologists agree: It’s not a question of whether a virus in the Ebola family will cause an outbreak outside of Africa
- via NPR
a new study suggests that bats may be public enemy number one
Living more closely to humans and being more closely genetically related to humans increased the odds of transmission
bats carried the highest number of these viruses
Researchers are currently looking into why
All groups of mammals were found to carry viruses that can spread to humans
and areas around the world most at risk for carrying emerging viruses differed based on the mammal
these places are most common in South and Central America and areas in Asia
the areas with the higher risks are in Central America
The study was funded as part of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Emerging Pandemic Threats PREDICT program
a project that seeks to identify new emerging infectious diseases that could become threatening to human health
Olival says his team hopes that scientists will use this research to identify regions and viruses to focus on for prevention efforts
The spreading of new diseases often involves activity from both animals and people
“These diseases are not just randomly jumping into people,” he says
“We see time and time again that it is the human disturbances in the environment that are causing these diseases to emerge,” through activities like chopping down forest and hunting animals out of certain areas
“It is our interactions with these species that are causing diseases to jump.”
Contact us at letters@time.com
Honolulu Theatre for Youth held its fourth annual Actors & Artists Fund Feb
The night unveiled HTY’s 2014-2015 season with live readings from Hawaii’s actors and celebrities
All money raised goes toward HTY’s professional actors and artists
the second city’s residents are enjoying cafes once again
but miss the tourists more than they were expecting
‘Meia de leite, como sempre?” Sonia asked me, her mouth creasing with her tell-tale smile. “The usual, milky coffee?” Never did I think these five words – so habitual, so everyday – could resonate so powerfully or sing so sweetly. With Portugal further easing lockdown restrictions on 18 May
restaurants and cafes are beginning to reopen across Porto
A cheerful neighbourhood joint directly outside my office in the city’s historic centre
This is fortunate as there isn’t a tourist to be seen
The sparkle in Sonia’s eyes gives away her smile
which is hidden behind the mask that all cafe and restaurant staff are now obliged to wear
she tells me; free of the confines of home and
excited about the prospect of some money coming in again
View image in fullscreenEven amid reopening
Porto’s streets remain quieter than usualA boom destination in recent years
central Porto is dependent on tourism these days
the past few months of confinamento have been tough
business at Café Porta do Olival is noticeably slow
The usual trio of grannies gossiping in the corner are nowhere to be seen
No workmen popping in for a quick espresso; no hum of the television news; nor the scramble over the sole copy of the daily Jornal de Notícias
Social-distancing rules leave only two lonely tables inside
The rest are consigned to the flagstone pavement
Today’s reopening is not as I’d imagined it
There’s a nervous guardedness about the city
like we’re enduring a collective first day back at school
No selfie brigade snapping away beneath Torre dos Clérigos bell tower
Not even a single open-deck tour bus to push me over into the kerb
I’ve never experienced the city without its touts and tour groups
so I have no reference point for this emptiness
who lives downtown and joins me for a coffee
also confesses to a certain saudade – longing – for the daily hubbub
local residents love to moan about the influx of tourists: the high rents
the city is livelier and more livable now than it’s ever been
are busy getting everything in place for the moment the borders reopen and planes return to the skies
the financial crisis almost brought the country to its knees
“Really bad.” He hopes this time recovery will come more quickly
Yet at least we now have the chance of meeting up together to eat
We talk tentatively of meeting up with our kids tomorrow; Serralves Contemporary Art Museum has an open day
“An excuse for another coffee,” José suggests