Has pangolin transmitted coronavirus to humans? A team of Chinese scientists suspects this small scale mammal as the intermediate host that has allowed the passage of the virus, which has already infected more than 31,000 people, from bats to humans. Genetic analyzes have shown that the viruses contracted by humans and pangolins are 99% similar.
"I hope that this will serve at least a lesson, and that we will stop going hunting wild animals. That poses problem", affirms Bruno David, president of the National museum of natural history, with the microphone of Europe 1 Endangered, the pangolin continues to be hunted for its highly valued meat and scales. Traditional Chinese medicine in particular gives them therapeutic properties. "These are beliefs that are not scientifically founded," recalls Bruno David. Each year 100,000 pangolins would be captured for trafficking, a figure that would make it the most poached animal in the world.
Many diseases transmitted by wild animals
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The coronavirus is far from being the first epidemic generated by a rapprochement between man and a species that is a priori wild. "Since the Neolithic, taming wild animals has also brought a number of diseases, which have become common in humans," says Bruno David. "The flu, for example, comes a lot from animals." Bruno David deplores a devastating hunt for the species, dangerous for humans ... and "all the more a pity that the pangolin is a very friendly animal".