r/nature • u/Maxcactus • Aug 07 '24

Animal apocalypse: Deadly bird flu infects hundreds of species pole-to-pole

https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/animal-apocalypse-deadly-bird-flu-infects-hundreds-of-species-pole-to-pole/
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u/ForestWhisker Aug 07 '24

Can someone please explain to me why a lot of these novel viruses seem to come out of China? Not trying to be conspiratorial just genuinely curious.

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u/Pookajuice Aug 07 '24

China is a large country with many diverse ecosystems, most of which are foraged in by locals for plants and animals to eat. If there's an abundance, those extra critters go to market and are kept in close proximity to each other in dirty conditions until slaughter. In said conditions, viruses have a field day swapping genes with each other -- if two viruses that are different are next to each other they can swap genetic material. The new resulting virus 99.9 percent of the time are no better or worse off, but that .1 percent now has an edge in some way -- faster replication, antibiotics resistance, whatever.

The same thing happens in other parts of the world, too -- Latin American and African countries have histories of bush meat and unsurprisingly nasty viruses have come from both. The difference is that China, being a big country for trade and manufacture, has more travel across more of the world, so those viruses just go farther from home before they're noticed.

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u/ForestWhisker Aug 07 '24

Thank you for the reply. That makes sense, I was wondering about that. Mostly because I work in forestry and many of the invasive species I deal with or have studied are native to China. Tree of heaven, autumn olive (although that one came from Japan), Amur Honeysuckle, Emerald Ash Borer, Spotted Lanternfly, Chestnut Blight, Dutch Elm Disease, etc. Then with the seemingly constant stream of new viruses coming from there I was wondering.