- Transmission: Studies place the bat at the origin of the coronavirus
The pangolin has been an animal widely used in traditional Chinese medicine . Now, paradoxically, some scientists place him at the origin of the coronavirus epidemic that has killed 636 people in China and has become a global alert.
Scientists from the University of Agriculture of South China have presented the results of a study according to which pangolin is the potential source of the coronavirus 2019-nCoV. They reached that conclusion by comparing the genome of the coronaviruses that infect these animals with the viruses isolated from the infected people in this outbreak.
Always according to these researchers, the genomic sequences were 99% identical. "It is the most likely intermediate host," they have said in allusion that it could be the link that connected the bat - the usual reservoir of coronaviruses - with man . "This latest discovery will have a great impact on the prevention and control of the origin (of the virus)," these scientists continue in a note published on the university's website.
In previous research, which has broad support from the scientific community, it has been proposed, also after collating genetic sequences of the viruses, that the coronavirus comes from the Rhinolophus affinis bat, a typical species from the Chinese province of Yunnan. But the intermediate animal that has allowed the virus to reach man from the bat was missing. A month ago, other scientists in Beijing suggested that the origin could be in the snake, but that hypothesis has been diluted in the light of new research.
Before the pangolin was publicly pointed out, the shadow of suspicion already fell on the animal. The first cases of the coronavirus appeared linked to the market in the city of Wuhan, where there are usually stands of wild animals.
This squamous mammal is a protected species, but it is still illegally traded with it , since its meat is highly appreciated, as well as its scales, which serve as the basis for supposed therapies for arthritis or certain skin diseases. And that Chinese laws punish its sale with jail.
The international scientific community now expects these conclusions to be endorsed with data , since Chinese researchers have limited themselves to exposing the finding to the media, without providing important evidence, such as where they have isolated viruses in the pangolin.
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