Do marine organisms eradicate 5% of the virus?
Amsterdam, June 30, 2020, Tuesday
While corona-like viruses are still likely to be transmitted from marine organisms to humans, research has found that 8% of the virus is being used by sea creatures as food. Sea creatures do not even release the virus when they move in the water for oxygen and food. The research was led by Jennifer Welch of the Institute for Sea Research in the Netherlands.
When a virus infects a cell, it uses it as a host to create a new virus. It could then infect many new cells, but Welsh found that more than 150 million virus molecules were found in a glass of sea water. Sea creatures kill the molecules of this virus as food. The Japanese oyster, for example, separates algae and bacteria during the search for food and oxygen at sea, and also swallows virus molecules. The researchers did not feed the marine life during the experiment, and the water was filtered for oxygen. These Japanese oysters removed the virus molecules from the water.
Researchers in an experiment in the virus ecology lab found that the virus was reduced by as much as 3%. In the same way spores also effectively eradicate the virus. The virus was removed within 30 minutes of being released into the water. It was not immediately clear which species of marine animals controlled the virus. However, lead researcher Welsh also believed that the results obtained during the experiment may differ from those of naturally living animals. The condition of the ocean is so complex that many species of each other influence each other. Research on this has been published in Nature Scientific.
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