Name: 蝙蝠如何攜帶致命疾病卻能安然無恙？🦇 (How bats carry deadly diseases without dying)
Uploaded: 2026-03-01T10:30:29.000Z
Duration: 7 min 49 s

程度副詞

I think they're these like fluffy flying mammals with a lot to offer, like tequila.

我覺得牠們是毛茸茸的飛行哺乳動物，而且有很多貢獻，像是龍舌蘭。

The trouble is, when bats hit the media, it's almost always over some deadly disease like Ebola or COVID 19 and even the recent Nipah virus outbreaks in India.

問題是，當蝙蝠出現在媒體上，幾乎都是因為像 Ebola、COVID 19 還有最近印度爆發的 Nipah virus 這些致命疾病。

And yet we're not finding caves full of bats that died from coronavirus or Ebola.

但我們卻沒發現洞穴裡充滿死於冠狀病毒或 Ebola 的蝙蝠。

Because bats don't just host deadly diseases, they seem to tolerate them really well.

因為蝙蝠不只會帶有致命疾病，牠們似乎對疾病有很強的耐受性。

Researchers think it's because they evolved with a unique ability.

研究人員認為這是因為牠們演化出了一種獨特的能力。

So there's a number of unique features of bat immune systems and their physiology that we think have co evolved with the evolution of flight.

所以我們認為，蝙蝠免疫系統和生理機能的許多獨特特徵，是隨著飛行能力的演化而共同演化出來的。

Flying requires an incredible amount of energy.

A bat in flight elevates its basal metabolic rate up to 15 fold.

飛行中的蝙蝠，其基礎代謝率會提升高達 15 倍。

And to put that in context, a human at full speed running is only doubling their metabolic rate.

為了讓大家有個概念，人類全速奔跑時，代謝率也只會增加一倍。

And a rodent perhaps elevating it sevenfold.

So this is more than twice the energetic expenditure of any form of terrestrial locomotion.

所以這比任何陸地移動方式所消耗的能量都要高出兩倍以上。

Their heart rates can skyrocket to over a thousand beats per minute.

牠們的心跳速度可以飆升到每分鐘一千下以上。

That's around four or five times more than their resting heart rate.

這大約是牠們靜止心跳率的四到五倍。

It's honestly remarkable that when a bat takes flight, it doesn't just like drop dead.

說真的，蝙蝠在飛行時竟然不會直接死掉，這真的很不可思議。

So a bat in flight will elevate its body temperature up to 44 degrees centigrade.

所以，飛行中的蝙蝠體溫會升高到攝氏 44 度。

And 45 degrees centigrade is kind of the lethal limit of what mammals can tolerate.

而攝氏 45 度差不多是哺乳動物能承受的致死極限了。

So when in flight, they're really pushing the sort of physiological limits of thermal tolerance.

所以飛行時，牠們真的在挑戰熱耐受的生理極限。

And while all of this is fascinating, you're probably wondering, okay, what does this have to do with viruses?

雖然這一切都很迷人，但你可能在想，好，這跟病毒有什麼關係？

Well, stick with me because we are getting there.

So flight is essentially a huge stressor that resembles aging.

所以，飛行基本上是一種巨大的壓力源，跟老化很像。

And because it's a part of bats innate physiology, they've evolved unique molecular pathways to mitigate that damage at the site of production.

而且因為這是蝙蝠天生生理結構的一部分，牠們演化出了獨特的分子途徑，來在產生損傷的地方就加以減輕。

So essentially, bat physiology is resilient to the process of aging.

所以基本上，蝙蝠的生理結構對老化過程具有抵抗力。

You see, despite burning a ton of energy all of the time, bats are shockingly long lived.

你看，儘管牠們一直燃燒大量的能量，但蝙蝠的壽命卻出奇地長。

Usually there are trade offs between metabolic output and lifespan, and rodents are a great example of that.

通常代謝輸出和壽命之間會有取捨，而囓齒動物就是一個很好的例子。

Typically, they only live up to a couple of years.

通常牠們的壽命最多隻有幾年。

Bats, however, are about the same size and have metabolic expenditure that even exceeds that of rodents.

然而，蝙蝠的大小差不多，而且代謝消耗甚至超過了囓齒動物。

The oldest known bat lives up to 40 years in the wild.

已知最長壽的蝙蝠在野外可以活到 40 歲。

So after actually correcting for body size, bats are the longest lived mammals on Earth.

所以，在實際校正了體型之後，蝙蝠是地球上壽命最長的哺乳動物。

So these special pathways that they've developed in order to mitigate the intense effects of flying have likely made them extremely tolerant to viruses, or at least primed them to successfully fight them off.

是以，牠們為了減輕飛行帶來的強烈影響而發展出的這些特殊途徑，很可能讓牠們對病毒具有極高的耐受性，或者至少讓牠們能成功地對抗病毒。

When a virus enters a human, two things happen.

當病毒進入人體時，會發生兩件事。

Okay, more than two things happen, but let's focus on two, because who has the time?

好啦，其實不只兩件事，但我們先專注講兩件就好，畢竟時間寶貴嘛！

Think of these like two switches that need to be turned on when a virus infects a cell, and

你可以想像成，當病毒感染細胞時，這兩個開關就會打開，

而當身體清除病毒後，開關就會關閉。

So when a virus shows up, it enters a cell and your body raises an alarm, like, hey, there's a guy here who's not even supposed to be here, that flips the alarm switch, which releases some molecules that slow the virus from replicating.

所以，當病毒出現時，牠會進入細胞，然後你的身體就會發出警報，像是「嘿，這裡有個不該出現的傢伙！」，這就會觸動警報開關，釋放一些分子來減緩病毒複製。

And then the second switch flips, which launches an immune response to kill off the rest of the virus.

然後第二個開關就會啟動，發動免疫反應來清除剩餘的病毒。

Once that immune response switches on, our bodies can sometimes start to experience some pretty severe symptoms, like a fever, body aches, and

一旦免疫反應啟動，我們的身體有時候會出現一些相當嚴重的症狀，像是發燒、全身痠痛，

essentially inflammation, which sure fights the virus.

還有，基本上就是發炎，這確實能對抗病毒。

But also the immune response causes widespread inflammation in the body, which is, and of itself, highly fatal.

但同時，免疫反應也會在身體裡引發廣泛的發炎，這本身就可能致命。

But bats can't have their body triggering inflammation every time they experience an extreme stressor, because their entire existence as a flying mammal is basically an extreme stressor.

不過，蝙蝠不能在每次經歷極端壓力時都觸發身體發炎，因為牠們作為飛行哺乳動物的整個生存狀態，基本上就是一種極端壓力。

And so their switch responses to an invader work a bit differently than ours.

所以牠們的開關反應跟我們不太一樣。

So in some species, their alarm switch is perpetually on.

有些品種的警報開關是永遠開啟的。

In other species, it's entirely in overdrive, which means they're sounding an alarm and releasing molecules to stop a virus from replicating before it even enters their body.

另一些品種則是完全超載運作，這表示牠們在病毒進入體內前，就已經發出警報並釋放分子來阻止病毒複製。

And their switch that triggers inflammation kind of has a permanent dimmer so they don't feel these strong side effects.

牠們觸發發炎的開關，有點像是永遠調在比較暗的狀態，所以不會感受到強烈的副作用。

Bats are particularly adept at reducing viral loads to very low levels and simply tolerating whatever is remaining.

蝙蝠特別擅長將病毒量降低到非常低的程度，然後就只是忍受剩下的部分。

Which might be part of the reason why the viruses they do host are so much more dangerous to humans.

這或許也是牠們身上攜帶的病毒對人類來說危險得多的原因之一。

The longer a virus stays in a host, the more chances it has to replicate, mutate, jump to a new bat or animal, and

病毒在宿主身上停留的時間越長，就越有機會複製、變異、跳到新的蝙蝠或動物身上，

But before you start thinking about bats as these, like, horrible, disease ridden flying creeps, it's worth noting there is a lot we can learn from them, including how to better treat disease in humans.

但在你開始把蝙蝠想成是那些可怕、帶滿疾病的飛行爬蟲之前，值得一提的是，我們能從牠們身上學到很多，包括如何更好地治療人類的疾病。

At least one group of researchers in Dublin recently received a grant to study just that.

像是最近在都柏林，就有一個研究團隊獲得了補助金，專門研究這部分。

And some of our methods already work to mimic the switches in a bat, including how we treat many severe Covid cases.

而我們現在的一些治療方法，已經能模仿蝙蝠的開關機制，包括我們如何治療許多嚴重的 COVID 19 病例。

We first treat patients with Remdesivir, which is an antiviral drug that tries to reduce the viral load.

我們一開始會用瑞德西韋治療病患，這是一種抗病毒藥物，試圖降低病毒量。

But then later, later on in infections, we'll treat with dexamethasone, which is a steroid that's meant to actually blunt that immunopathology.

但到了感染後期，我們會改用類固醇藥物地塞米松，用來抑制免疫病理反應。

So it's anti inflammatory and so we turn the alarm on and we dim the other switch.

所以它是抗發炎的，這樣我們就能打開警報，同時關閉另一個開關。

recent studies have shown that bats under extreme stress caused by things like rising global temperatures, habitat loss and human interference are more likely to shed and spread spread viruses.

近期的研究顯示，在高溫、棲地喪失和人為幹擾等極端壓力下的蝙蝠，更有可能散播病毒。

So I feel strongly that there is a win win argument for bat conservation and human public health because a healthy bat is simply less of a zoonotic threat to humans than is a sick bat.

所以我強烈認為，蝙蝠保育和人類公衛之間存在雙贏的論點，因為健康的蝙蝠對人類造成的跨物種傳染威脅，遠小於生病的蝙蝠。

While bats do pose zoonotic risk, they also offer a really valuable research source for new approaches in medicine.

雖然蝙蝠確實有跨物種傳染的風險，但牠們也為我們提供了寶貴的研究資源，能開發新的醫療方法。

I'm Kim, the producer of this episode, and

there is just so much, so much we did not get to cover in this including how a broad diversity of species of bats might also contribute to why diseases they carry are so deadly, or even just the things that do affect bats, like white nose fungus.

還有很多很多我們這次沒辦法講到的，像是各種不同種類的蝙蝠，可能也是牠們攜帶的疾病如此致命的原因，或是影響蝙蝠的白鼻病等等。

There's a long list of topics to explore and this piece is really just meant to be a primer, but

還有好多好多可以探討的主題，這篇內容真的只是個入門，

hopefully it makes you want to learn more.

但希望它能讓你更想深入瞭解。

I've included a bunch of links in the description to help you get started.

我在說明欄裡放了很多連結，希望能幫助你開始。

We choose Stories for Science Explained to help foster curiosity in the world around us and maybe offer you a lens you haven't looked through before without a paywall.

我們選擇「科學解密」的故事，是希望培養大家對周遭世界的好奇心，並且提供一個你可能沒看過的視角，而且沒有付費牆。

To help keep our journalism free and support more of our work, you can go to vox.com givenow as a special thank you to those who make reoccurring contributions.

為了讓我們的新聞報導能持續免費，並支持我們更多的工作，你可以到 vox.com 捐款。特別感謝那些定期捐款的朋友。

You'll get links to video tutorials, newsletters, and Q&As with Vox journalists across our entire newsroom.

你會收到我們整個新聞編輯室的影音教學、電子報和與記者問答的連結。