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To learn more about the current pandemic, scientists went into research mode and determined that the current coronavirus was caused when a virus jumped from an animal to a human. Now, scientists are focusing on how to prevent the next coronavirus transmission from becoming a pandemic.

“Coronaviruses are under our feet in rodents. They are above our heads in bats. We live in a kind of coronavirus world,” virologist Edward Holmes at the University of Sydney said in an NPR article. With colleagues, Holmes identified bats located within a small area to study. His findings, reported last week in an article, were surprising.

“So in this very small area that we sampled, about 1,100 hectare, there’s an amazing number of bat viruses,” says Holmes. His team discovered 24 new coronaviruses. And that’s only within an area the size of Los Angeles International Airport.

Holmes’s research points to a number of coronaviruses and potential pandemics. “I think we need to face reality here,” Holmes says. “Coronavirus pandemics are not a once in a hundred year event. The next one could come at any time. It could come in 50 years or in 10 years. Or it could be next year.”

Source: DW News/YouTube

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Conservation organizations have called for an end to the wildlife trade to help prevent pandemics like the coronavirus. Read more coverage on animal to human transmission in One Green Planet:

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