The pangolin, a small mammal with scales threatened with extinction, could be the animal that transmitted the new coronavirus to humans, Chinese scientists estimated this Friday. Researchers at the Southern China Agricultural University have identified pangolin as "a possible intermediate host" that has facilitated the transmission of the virus, the university said in a statement, without further details.
An animal that harbors a virus without being sick and can transmit it to other species is called a "reservoir". In the case of the new coronavirus, it is certainly a bat: according to a recent study, the genomes of this virus and of those which circulate in this animal are identical to 96%.
A very similar virus
But as the bat virus is not equipped to attach itself to human receptors, it undoubtedly passed through another species to adapt to humans, called "intermediate host".
However, after testing a thousand samples from wild animals, scientists have determined that the genomes of virus sequences taken from pangolins are 99% identical to those found in patients with the new coronavirus, according to the New China state news agency.
Civet, responsible for SARS
The new virus appeared in December in a market in Wuhan (center) where many animals, including wild mammals, were sold for food. Given the nature of this coronavirus, experts suspected the “intermediate host” to be a mammal. The hypothesis of a snake, long gone, had quickly been swept away.
During the SARS epidemic (2002-03), also caused by a coronavirus, the intermediary was the civet, a small mammal. As part of its measures to stem the recent epidemic, China announced at the end of January a temporary ban on the trade in wild animals, banning for an indefinite period the breeding, transport or sale of all wild animal species.
The most poached animal in the world
Nearly 100,000 pangolins are victims each year in Asia and Africa of an illegal traffic which makes it the most poached species in the world, largely in front of elephants or rhinos, whose cases are much more publicized, according to the NGO WildAid .
Their delicate flesh is highly prized by Chinese and Vietnamese gourmets, as are their scales, bones and organs by traditional Asian medicine.
Ban wildlife trade to prevent epidemics
"Such wildlife trade is responsible for terrible suffering for animals and endangers human health, as we can see today," said Neil Cruze, an official with the World Animal Protection organization. (WAP), in a press release.
"If we want to do everything in our power to prevent epidemics of deadly diseases such as the coronavirus, then a permanent ban on wildlife trade, in China and around the world, is the only solution," he said. -he thinks.
In 2016, the International Convention on Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) voted to include pangolins in its appendix 1, which strictly prohibits its trade. Despite this measure, their traffic has only increased, according to NGOs.
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