Viral Spillover Risks

About:

• In this study, while it was found that the risk of viral spillovers increases with changes in the environment at a particular location, driven by global warming, this by itself does not guarantee a higher possibility of a pandemic occurring via viruses here. 
• This is because there is another important link in the process.
• As long as viruses and their ‘bridge vectors’ – that act as hosts and lead to their spread – are not simultaneously present in the environment, the likelihood of dramatic events probably remains low.
• Climate change leads to shifts in species ranges and distributions, new associations can emerge, bringing in vectors that can mediate viral spillovers, as simulations recently highlight.

‘Viral spillover’:

• Viruses are some of the most abundant entities on earth, but they need to infect a host’s cell in order to replicate.
• According to the research, these virus/host relationships seem relatively stable within superkingdoms, the major groupings of organisms.
• However, below this rank, viruses may infect a new host from a reservoir host (in which it usually resides) by being able to transmit sustainably in a novel host – a process defined as ‘viral spillover’.

Source : Indian Express