As the only mammal that can truly fly, bats have evolved a variety of unique characteristics that allow their bodies to cope with the physical challenge of flapping through the night.
Beyond broad generalizations, there are lessons to be learned from the bat's relationship with viruses that could tell us what to watch for in other species.how closely related those organisms areMicrobes at home inside one human's body might jump easily into another person, but aren't likely to disrupt the functions of that new host's body.
Conversely, a virus from a distantly related animal might have a harder time settling into a person's body, but when they do, we can expect havoc.Not all hosts will react in the same way to a pathogen. Different immune systems repel or tolerate certain pathogens in unique ways, resisting illness by either destroying the invader or ignoring its presence. Resisting infection usually makes short work of any potential leap between species, limiting the growth of pathogens before they can gain much of a foothold. Tolerance, on the other hand, allows pathogens to grow rapidly without compromising the health of their host. Animals that can shield themselves against a microbe's chemical weaponry are more likely to live longer, allowing the microbe to grow unchecked all the while. Should that tolerance be anything but absolute, however, it could be game over for its host population as the pathogen's unchecked growth quickly cuts down any and all susceptible individuals. "In providing a theoretical framework to explain this phenomenon, we generate a series of testable questions and hypotheses for future comparative immunological studies, to be carried out at in vitro and in vivo scales," the researchersOf course, it's impossible to conduct a full immunological evaluation on every potential reservoir out there in the animal kingdom. But according to the new framework, an animal's lifespan could serve as reasonable proxy. After all, animals that can tolerate diseases as well as bats should live relatively long lives too. We might not have the winged mammal's robust constitutions, but that doesn't mean we can't learn a few things from them that might help us avoid the next
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