chXout® Blog

In an unlikely upside, 2020 marks the return of beavers to England's wilderness. Beavers are back! In August, the government's five year trial to reintroduce the species into England's natural world was completed. Two family groups of beavers bred successfully in the river Otter in Devon and will now continue to settle in new areas.  Beavers are so dam important Beavers' ability to build dams helps improve water quality and flow, preventing floods and increasing biodiversity.  According to research from the University of Exeter, beavers "played a significant role" in filtering pollutants from water at a place where they built 12 dams and ponds.   According to the same study, the flood-prone community of East Budleigh saw peak flood flows drop significantly, after a family of beavers constructed six dams upstream of the village. It also found that fish numbers increased in places where beavers had built their dams.  Where have they been? The Eurasian beaver was part of the British natural landscape until a few centuries ago. Its...

It's the ultimate treat: a hot drink on a cold winter's morning. But your favourite takeaway coffee could hide dangerous chemicals in its cup.   A research has warned that drinking coffee or tea from a paper cup could lead to ingesting thousands of tiny microplastic particles. Consumed over time, these could pose significant health implications, including higher risks of cancer. The study, due to be published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, found that drinking three regular cups of tea or coffee daily in a paper cup could lead to ingesting 75,000 tiny microplastic particles.  These particles can contain ions and toxic heavy metals, such as palladium and could also cross into the animal kingdom, the researchers say. Alongside health risks, paper cups are also damaging to the environment. They can't be recycled and don't decompose in a landfill, which means the demand for them can only be met through more deforestation.  All this seems to prove paper cups are a double-edged sword and not...

We don't yet know all the animals that can get infected with COVID-19. Although SARS-CoV-2 originated in an animal - most likely a bat - it is not animals that drive the course of the pandemic. Rather, it is us, humans.  It appears the virus can spread from people to animals during close contact. Data from mink farms in Denmark has also shown that the virus can not only be passed between humans and animals, but it can  also mutate in the animal host and then "jump" back onto people, infecting them. While this is definitely a cause for concern, it must be noted that mink are particularly susceptible to coronaviruses and farms provide the ideal environment for them to spread. What about other species? Animals which have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 Cats, dogs and other mammals can get infected, mostly after a close contact with an infected person.  There have been reports of pet cats and dogs contracting the virus in several countries around...

Denmark is set to cull millions of mink, amid fears a new coronavirus strain in the species could jeopardise a COVID-19 vaccine. They are cute, furry and apparently carrying a mutant form of the coronavirus, which has already spread to humans. Now Denmark will cull 17 million mink to stop the spread of the mutant virus and help protect the effectiveness of a future COVID-19 vaccine.  According to reports, more than 200 mink farms in the country have seen infections of coronavirus, while mink-related versions of it were found in 214 humans since June. However, the most worrying strain of the mutant has so far been found in only 12 people and five mink farms.  What do we know about the mutant? There are multiple mutations of the coronavirus in mink and seven of them have mutations in the spike protein, which helps the virus enter the cells. One of these viruses has four mutations in the spike protein and during laboratory tests proved less...

We should curb our contact with wildlife and livestock to prevent future pandemics, a new report says. Our relationship with the environment has been getting more and more complex. Wildfires, floods, extreme weather changes and now, a pandemic – the challenges are multiple and require immediate action. Now, a report by UN established organisation IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) says humankind needs a new approach to stop future outbreaks before they become global. Its authors call on people to stop encroaching on wild land and eat less meat. This is hardly surprising. If you trace back the origin of past pandemics, quite often you will get to an animal source. The virus that caused the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic is likely to have sprung from North American domestic and wild birds. HIV jumped onto humans from chimpanzees, most likely when humans came into contact with the chimpanzees’ infected blood while hunting them. Even recent diseases like Ebola, zika and, of...