Your feline friend may be bringing home more than you bargained for.
There are all sorts of viruses and other microbes left uncatalogued in the world.
Pepper belongs to John Lednicky, a UF microbiologist and long-time virus hunter who lives in Gainesville, Florida.
© Carrigphotos via Getty
So, he and his team brought the dead rodent back to the lab to study it further.
Other jeilongviruses have been found in Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America.
And the teams early research suggests that their virus is unlike any other of its kind seen to date.
Pepper the cat laying in his owner John Lednicky’s lap. © John Lednicky
The researchers have dubbed their novel microbe the Gainesville rodent jeilong virus 1 (GRJV1).
They detailed their findings on GRJV1 in a paperpublishedlast month in the journalPathogens.
Millions of viruses are predicted to exist that have not yet been isolated.
The actual threat that GRJV1 may pose to us right now is probably low.
The researchers note that even well-known, deadly rodent-borne germs like hantaviruses only occasionally cause outbreaks in humans.
So its certainly possible that GRJV1 has been making people sick for a while but going unnoticed.
The virus formerly known asmonkeypoxis one such recent example.
WHO Declares Mpox a Global Health Crisis.
But unfortunately, the resources required to study these possible threats are often in short supply.
The problem we encounter is lack of funding.
For example, the NIH no longer funds many surveillance studies.
The work we do is very expensive, requires extensive training and safety procedures, and specialized secure facilities.
That said, he might be even more of a cautious scientist than anyones giving him credit for.
Interestingly, Pepper will typically eat the front half only of a rodent.
In general, he leaves the kidneys, spleen, and intestines uneaten.
Does he do this out of instinct?
But many of the dangerous rodent-borne viruses are precisely found in the latter organs.
This article has been updated with quotes from one of the studys authors.
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