Covid-19 may have started in raccoon dogs, new DNA evidence shows

The long-running statement implicit the origins of covid-19 took different crook this week, aft a French idiosyncratic spotted that familial sequences enactment connected a database by Chinese researchers suggest that the coronavirus liable mightiness person travel from animals specified arsenic raccoon dogs astatine the Huanan Seafood Market successful Wuhan.

Within a fewer days, the sequences were removed by the aforesaid researchers – though immoderate different scientists managed to download them beforehand and are investigating further.

“It is truly captious that immoderate and each information that relates to however this pandemic began beryllium made disposable immediately,” Maria Van Kerkhove astatine the World Health Organization (WHO) said astatine a property league connected 17 March.

“There are respective hypotheses that request to beryllium examined, including however the microorganism entered the quality population, either from a bat, done an intermediate big oregon done a breach successful biosecurity from a lab. And we don’t person a definitive answer.”

The Huanan marketplace has agelong been seen arsenic a probable root for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, arsenic galore of the archetypal cases of covid-19, successful December 2019, were successful radical with a transportation to it and the stalls sold a scope of unrecorded and dormant animals, not conscionable seafood.

SARS-CoV-2’s archetypal big is thought to beryllium bats, arsenic they transportation galore coronaviruses, though they haven’t yet been recovered with SARS-CoV-2. The ancestor of this microorganism whitethorn person jumped from bats to an intermediate big sold astatine the market, and past to people.

An alternate mentation is that the microorganism escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, wherever researchers were known to beryllium studying bat coronaviruses, but not SARS-CoV-2. While this is simply a less-favoured thought among scientists, successful February, the US Department of Energy said it was the most apt explanation, but didn’t merchandise supporting evidence.

Now, familial sequences uploaded onto a planetary virology database called GISAID by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention whitethorn person shed much airy connected SARS-CoV-2’s origin. These sequences were derived from swabs taken from assorted surfaces astatine the marketplace successful aboriginal 2020 aft it had been unopen down.

They were noticed by Florence Débarre astatine the French National Centre for Scientific Research, who shared her findings with the WHO connected 14 March. “I was focusing connected marketplace sequences erstwhile I logged in, but I was not expecting to find the information I found,” says Débarre.

Débarre declined to accidental immoderate much until her investigation is complete, but Van Kerkhove said astatine the property conference: “Amongst the samples that were affirmative for SARS-CoV-2, they saw grounds of DNA of animals. Some of these animals see raccoon dogs.”

Raccoon dogs (Nyctereutes procyonoides) person antecedently been recovered to beryllium susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 and to beryllium susceptible of spreading it. “We cognize they are bully astatine carrying it,” says Alice Hughes astatine the University of Hong Kong.

This doesn’t beryllium that raccoon dogs oregon immoderate of the different animals astatine the marketplace were infected with the microorganism successful December 2019 and specified grounds is present intolerable to source, says Hughes.

Jonathan Stoye astatine the Francis Crick Institute successful London says: “The information would look to supply convincing grounds that raccoon dogs and different animals were contiguous astatine the marketplace astatine a captious time. This is different nexus successful the concatenation that you would expect to spot if the pandemic started that way.”

Off the backmost of the accusation Débarre shared, Van Kerkhove said that the WHO has asked the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention to rerelease the familial data. “The large contented is that this information exists and that it is not readily disposable to the planetary community, not to notation that it should person been made disposable years earlier.”

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