New Data Supports Animal Market Origins of COVID-19 Pandemic; New Analysis of Samples from Wuhan Animal Market Supports Its Role as a Central Site of Early Spread of Covid-19, and other C-Virus related stories
New data supports animal market origins of COVID-19 pandemic
The Hunan Seafood Wholesale wet market in Wuhan, China, has long been considered the most likely source of the coronavirus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic.
That theory is now supported by a new study analyzing more than 800 samples collected in and around the market in January 2020 as the pandemic began.
Those samples show that animal species known to carry the COVID coronavirus were present in the market, according to results published Wednesday in the journal Cell.
“This paper adds another layer to the accumulating evidence that all points to the same scenario: that infected animals were introduced into the market in mid- to late November 2019, which sparked the pandemic,” said study co-author Kristian Andersen, director of infectious disease genomics with Scripps Research.
The common raccoon dog, a series susceptible to SARS-CoV, is closely linked to market wildlife stalls that contained SARS-CoV-2, researchers found.
Genetic material from other species like masked palm civets, the Hoary bamboo rat and the Malayan porcupine were also associated with COVID, results show.
“These are the same sorts of animals that we know facilitated the original SARS coronavirus jumping into humans in 2002,” said study co-author Michael Worobey, head of ecology and evolutionary biology with the University of Arizona. —>READ MORE HERE
New analysis of samples from Wuhan animal market supports its role as a central site of early spread of Covid-19:
After an in-depth analysis of the genetic material from hundreds of swabs taken from the walls, floors, machines and drains inside the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China — a site that’s been described as an epicenter of early spread of Covid-19 — scientists say they now know exactly which species of animals were in the same area where investigators also found the most positive samples the virus that causes Covid-19.
Species present in the areas where the highest numbers of SARS-CoV-2 samples were found include raccoon dog, hoary bamboo rat, dog, European rabbit, Amur hedgehog, Malayan porcupine, Reeves’s muntjac, Himalayan marmot and masked palm civet.
The new findings add to strong but circumstantial evidence that the SARS-CoV-2 virus jumped from infected animals to humans and that the market was a central site of early spread.
The researchers identified the species of animals at the market through a technique called metagenomic sequencing, which reads all the genetic material present in a sample and then sifts through to understand where it came from.
The analysis, which was published Thursday in the journal Cell, doesn’t prove that the animals were infected by the virus, but their DNA was found very near the virus, sometimes on the same swab. That means it’s a strong possibility the animals were infected at the market.
Of the animals present at the market, rabbits, dogs and raccoon dogs are known to be susceptible to Covid-19 infections. Raccoon dogs have also been shown to transmit the infection, making them a strong candidate to be the animals that first passed the virus to humans. —>READ MORE HERE
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