Vid 19 are not just viral diseases.

They are zoonotic diseases caused by a virus transmitted from animals to humans.

While many animals are capable of transmission, there's one in particular that is considered a virus.

Super host bats.

So what makes Dracula's alter ego also the perfect breeding ground for viruses?

Bats harbor significantly more zoonotic viruses compared to other mammals.

Researchers have found more than 60 of these floating around in the bat population, and on average, each bat plays host to almost two of these viruses.

Some of these air linked to large scale outbreaks such as MERS, SARS and Ebola, which were spread to humans either directly from bats or through intermediate hosts in scientists have suggested that bats could also be linked to the cove in 19 coronavirus.

But with such a heavy viral cargo, how do bats managed to survive?

Researchers believe it actually comes down to their ability to fly the inflammation that results from the physical act of beating your wings.

You know, hundreds of times a minute that can lead to damage of the cellular level.

That intense damage would typically be enough to trigger an immune response the same reaction your body would have twin infection.

This includes symptoms like inflammation, a fever or even mucus production.

And for the most part, this reaction is to protect the body.

But sometimes immune systems overreact, which can trigger severe diseases such as pneumonia, as seen with cove in 19 cases.

So the aggressive and consistent amount of damage caused by flying has forced bats to adapt.

That's have dampened down their response there.

Inflammatory response.

They produce Onley enough of a response to survive and fly without the body going into overdrive, basically without causing disease in that response to flying comes with a rather helpful byproduct.

The power to fight viruses.

Their weekend anti inflammatory response, not Onley, stops the body from going into overdrive.

It also allows them to always be on high alert for viruses.

Normally, mammals have to switch off their anti viral response systems tow, avoid inflammation.

But scientists have found that some bats never switch off their anti viral response at all.

Their immune system is basically always on the lookout for a new viral invasion, so when a virus attacks, bats can swiftly protect their bodies against it, they don't necessarily kill the virus, but they do protect their cells against it, essentially acting as viral incubators coexisting in tolerating it just enough to survive.

Most natural reservoirs have a long term relationship with viruses and bacteria.

They've spent a long time together, and often infection with those microbes is benign in its host.

So it's really the interaction with new hosts, the ability for viruses to get into a new animal or people that leads to disease.

So while all these viruses might be deadly toe other mammals bats themselves can carry them for a period of time without having any serious symptoms in.

During that time, they pass it on.

Bats make up about 20% of mammalian species, and they also love being together, which enhances the spread of viruses between them and well, they get around the sky, that is, that's can travel wide geographic distances in very little time.

This means they also passed their viral fluids to a wide range of animals, and these animals can pass them to humans through saliva, feces or urine.

Oftentimes, when animals are being handled, hunted, butchered or eaten, this is exactly what happened in 2000 and two when a horseshoe bat infected a sieve ID with SARS, which then passed on the disease to human populations.

But before we all start a bat witch hunt, let's take a step back.

Bats are essential to our society and ecosystems.

They control insect populations, pollinate crops and teach us about sonar systems so we wouldn't have our tropical rainforest to warrant for bats.

So these are animals that are critically important.

So even though we recognize that they may carry viruses that have the ability to infect people, we have to focus on human activities and the things that we're doing.

That brings us into contact with bats because the spillover is typically accidental and it's caused by us.

Currently, humanity is doing more and more each day to bring us into closer contact with wildlife.

We're expanding cities and farms in tow, wild areas, tearing down forests in capturing animals for wildlife markets or illegal trading.

These all increase the chances of wildlife directly interacting with people and domesticated animals, and that can lead to the emergence of new viruses in human populations.

Cove in 19 isn't the first and most certainly won't be the last cyanotic disease pandemic, but we can be better prepared in the future.

We need to continue to put resource is into public health measures strengthening health systems in countries that are most vulnerable to emerging diseases and continuing to understand what viruses air out there that are potentially risky for human health.

And what are the activities where the action is going on that put us at risk so that we can work with local communities and with countries including the United States?

Thio try to reduce high risk behaviors, yeah.