Creepy critters: Bats could hold secret in fighting Ebola outbreak

Bats can carry more than 100 different viruses, including Ebola, rabies and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), without becoming sick themselves. While that makes them a fearsome reservoir of disease, especially in the forests of Africa where they migrate vast distances, it also opens the intriguing possibility that scientists might learn their trick in keeping killers like Ebola at bay. Scientists theorize that their immunity to the diseases is connected to the mammals’ unique ability to fly: Flying requires bats’ metabolism to run at a very high rate, causing stress and potential cell damage, and experts think bats may have developed a mechanism to limit this damage by having parts of their immune system permanently switched on.

We are just at the beginning. But if we can understand how bats are dealing with these viruses and if we can redirect the immune system of other species to react in the same way, then that could be a potential therapeutic approach.

Michelle Baker of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Australia’s national science agency

Bats’ role in spreading Ebola is probably a function both of their huge numbers, where they rank second only to rodents among mammals in the world, as well as their unusual immune system. As well as tolerating viruses, bats are also amazingly long-lived. The tiny Brandt’s bat, a resident of Europe and Asia, has been recorded living for more than 40 years, even though it is barely the size of a mouse. Bats also rarely get cancer.

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