(GIST OF SCIENCE REPORTER) Viral Spillover

[October-2022]

According to new research published by the Royal Society B, named as the biological research journal, yet another effect could be the increased risk of “viral spillover” in some regions that could cause new pandemics over the next few years.
The research article titled as, ‘Viral spillover risk increases with climate change in High Arctic lake sediments’,

Viruses are some of the most abundant entities on earth, but they need to infect a host’s cell in order to replicate.
According to the research, these virus/host relationships seem relatively stable within superkingdoms, the major groupings of organisms.
However, below this rank, viruses may infect a new host from a reservoir host (in which it usually resides) by being able to transmit sustainably in a novel host – a process defined as ‘viral spillover’.
To study the possibility of a viral spillover, researchers from the University of Ottawa collected sediment and soil samples from Lake Hazen in Canada – the largest High Arctic lake by volume in the world, and the region’s largest freshwater ecosystem.