{"id":6417,"date":"2024-04-24T08:53:53","date_gmt":"2024-04-24T13:53:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=6417"},"modified":"2024-04-24T08:53:57","modified_gmt":"2024-04-24T13:53:57","slug":"deforestation-pushes-animals-in-uganda-forest-to-eat-virus-laden-bat-poo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2024\/04\/24\/deforestation-pushes-animals-in-uganda-forest-to-eat-virus-laden-bat-poo\/","title":{"rendered":"Deforestation pushes animals in Uganda forest to eat virus-laden bat poo"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-africa-68875094\">BBC<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Animals in a Ugandan forest have been eating bat poo laden with viruses after tobacco farming wiped out their usual food source, a study has found.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A virus linked to Covid-19 was among the 27 identified in the poo eaten by chimpanzees, antelopes and monkeys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Researchers say this finding sheds light on how new viruses might spread from wildlife to humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The animals were monitored in a study by the University of Stirling and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The six-year project was prompted when Dr Pawel Fedurek from the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Scotland&#8217;s University of Stirling observed wild chimpanzees in Budongo forest eating accumulated bat excrement, known as guano, from the hollow of a tree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In July 2017, he set up cameras which captured other species also eating the poo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the peer-reviewed study, which features in the journal,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s42003-024-06139-z#Sec7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Communications Biology<\/a>, guano is an &#8220;alternative source of crucial minerals&#8221; for the animals after the the palm trees they once consumed were &#8220;harvested to extinction&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-africa-68875094\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n<a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"\/secure-location.php\" style=\"display: none;\" title=\"yOw w  Vi\"><!-- yOw w  Vi --><\/a><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BBC Animals in a Ugandan forest have been eating bat poo laden with viruses after tobacco farming wiped out their usual food source, a study has found. A virus linked to Covid-19 was among the 27 identified in the poo eaten by chimpanzees, antelopes and monkeys. Researchers say this finding sheds light on how new [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zoonotic-diseases"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6417"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6418,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6417\/revisions\/6418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}