Andy Hoegh told us about his work using particle #MCMC to fit agent-based movement models to data. He has worked on Grizzly bear movement and #hendra virus in bats. The slides are also on GitHub https://andyhoegh.github.io/SMCDU/#/

A great article spreading information about how scientists (Peggy Eby and Ali Peel) are working to explain why horses get hendra and how we can prevent it (make sure there is enough food for bats and vaccines for horses)

Also those bloody drop bears get a mention but they are everywhere and they do bring in money with their fluffy bums. More on landline on Sunday.

#bats #hendra #koala #science #Yeah!

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-25/hendra-virus-bat-habitat-flying-fox-research-horses/102011352

Another example of how #GlobalWarming and #habitatdestruction promote human disease. Starving #bats shed more #hendra #Virus, and are a bigger threat to humans.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03682-9

Zoonosen und #Klimawandel:

Frucht-Fledermäuse in Australien verlieren wegen des Raubbaus des Menschen ihre abgelegenen Lebensräume in Wäldern. Daher wandern sie in menschliche Zivilisationsräume ein.

Sie bevorzugen dabei u.a. wegen der Nist- und Ernährungsvielfalt Pferdeställe. Die Fledermäuse tragen aber seit jeher den für Menschen tödlichen #Hendra-Virus in sich. Dieser benötigt Pferde als Zwischenwirte, um den Menschen zu infizieren

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Zoonosen und #Klimawandel:

Frucht-Fledermäuse in Australien verlieren wegen des Raubbaus des Menschen ihre abgelegenen Lebensräume in Wäldern. Daher wandern sie in menschliche Zivilisationsräume ein.

Sie bevorzugen dabei u.a. wegen der Nist- und Ernährungsvielfalt Pferdeställe. Die Fledermäuse tragen aber seit jeher den für Menschen tödlichen #Hendra-Virus in sich. Dieser benötigt Pferde als Zwischenwirte, um den Menschen zu infizieren

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"What we really need to be doing is planting those winter forests back and it's not a really difficult thing"

An elegant way to stop deadly #Hendra virus spillovers from bats to horses ... to us https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2022/11/16/1136850711/an-elegant-way-to-stop-deadly-hendra-virus-spillovers-from-bats-to-horses-to-us?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social

"Specifically, the researchers found that clusters of #Hendra virus spillovers occur following years in which the bats experience food stress. And these food shortages typically follow years with a strong El Niño, a climatic phenomenon in the tropical Pacific Ocean that is often associated with drought along eastern Australia. But if the trees the bats rely on for food during the winter have a large flowering event the year after there’s been a food shortage, there are no spillovers. Unfortunately, the problem is “there’s hardly any winter habitat left,” says Raina Plowright, a disease ecologist and study co-author at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York."

#Virology #spillover

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03682-9

A fascinating article featuring Wuhan-based virologist Shi Zhengli who helped identify coronaviruses. But the main message is this: Outbreaks from viruses crossing species will always occur. It's better to spend a small, regular amount to set up and run a regular monitoring system now than to be walloped by a huge expenditure when (not if) it happens again.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-chinas-bat-woman-hunted-down-viruses-from-sars-to-the-new-coronavirus1/

#Viruses #CoronaViruses #COVID19 #SARS #Hendra #Nipah #MERS #Diseases #Animals #Environment #Society