Useful Information for Students of History - WHY ARE BAT VIRUSES SO DEADLY.
A bat virus may be responsible for the highly infectious coronavirus respiratory illness in Wuhan China.
Long ago, when I was growing up in a tiny fishing village on the far south coast of New South Wales, some people still ate flying foxes, which were a type of bat. They were kept in cages "to fatten them up," then killed and cooked. I do not recall any specific sicknesses that may have swept that village.
Other wild creatures were also eaten. I used to trap rabbits, as did other kids, and I could dry the skins and sell them to a travelling buyer and make some pocket money. as well as often eating wild rabbit stew. Other wild creatures were also eaten, some ate wallabies, and I recall my father catching a black swan, caging it (to fatten it) and it was eaten one sunday in lieu of the usual roast chook (tasted somewhat fishy). Eating wild animals is not that far behind us in contemporary western history.
And, I should add, indigenous Australians, still have the right to hunt native animals for eating.
But what can make a bat virus that becomes a human virus so difficult to deal with?
This Science Daily coverage gives a likely reason:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200210144854.htm
The summary reads: "A study of cultured bat cells shows that their strong immune responses, constantly primed to respond to viruses, can drive viruses to greater virulence. Modelling bat immune systems on a computer, the researchers showed that when bat cells quickly release interferon upon infection, other cells quickly wall themselves off. This drives viruses to faster reproduction. The increased virulence and infectivity wreak havoc when these viruses infect animals with tamer immune systems, like humans."