Scientists discover SARS-like virus in Chinese bats

Scientists have discovered that bats in China are a source of a respiratory virus similar to SARS, which infected 8,000 people and killed more than 770 during a global pandemic a decade ago.

When an international team of researchers isolated and cultured a form of the virus found in a colony of horseshoe bats, they found that the virus was able to bind to a human SARS receptor — meaning that it can be transmitted directly to humans. The scientists discovered seven different strains of the virus in the same horseshoe bat colony in Kunming, which is in Yunnan province in southwestern China.

“Our discovery that bats may directly infect humans has enormous implications for public health control measures," said a news release issued by Peter Daszak, president of the international conservation group EcoHealth Alliance and a co-author of the study.

The scientists said they had suspected that the outbreak of the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) pandemic in Guandong province in 2002 had originated in bats, which then transmitted it to civets and then to humans. But they were never entirely sure.

“We have been searching for this missing link for 10 years, and finally we've found it," said Dr. Zhengli Shi, director of emerging infectious diseases at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a co-author of the paper, which was published this week in the journal Nature.

Meanwhile, the United Nations on Thursday reported four new cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), which brings the total number of MERS infections to 149. Of those infected, 63 have died.

The virus, which is from the same family as the one that caused the SARS outbreak, is also thought to have originated in bats.

One study, published in August, found strong evidence that it is widespread among dromedary camels in the Middle East.

MERS, which was unknown in humans until earlier this year, has also since been reported in people in Tunisia, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.

Al Jazeera and Reuters