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Geneva (dpa) - In addition to bats, pangolins are also being targeted by researchers as a possible starting point for the coronavirus pandemic.
Scientists recommend involving the pangolins in the search for the origin.
Minks and cats could also be hosts of the virus, wrote the scientists, who were looking for the origin of the virus in China on behalf of the World Health Organization (WHO), in their final report.
The experts also do not rule out the possibility that the virus was circulating in other countries even before it was discovered in December in the Chinese city of Wuhan, China.
However, the quality of previous studies on the topic left a lot to be desired, and it must be investigated further.
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The report was to be presented to representatives of the 194 WHO member countries in Geneva on Tuesday and then published online.
It was available to the German Press Agency in advance.
The investigation took place in a politically heated climate.
China wanted to prevent being pilloried as the cause of the pandemic.
Critics suspect that China did not give the 17 international experts all the access they wanted and that they put pressure on the report.
However, participants rejected this.
The researchers report that it is not clear whether the Huanan market in Wuhan, which was at the center of the outbreak last year, actually ended the pandemic.
There are also cases known that had nothing to do with the market.
The results may suggest "that the Huanan market was not the original source of the outbreak," the report said.
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The thesis that the virus accidentally escaped from a virus laboratory and spread is, according to the experts, an "extremely unlikely path".
Viruses that are most similar to the Sars-CoV-2 virus have been found in bats and pangolins, it said.
"But none of the viruses that have so far been identified in these mammals is so similar to the Sars-CoV-2 that it can be considered a direct precursor."
"In addition, the high susceptibility of minks and cats to Sars-CoV-2 indicates that other animal species are possible reservoirs," it says.
The scientists assume an intermediate host from which the virus was transmitted to humans.
However, it has not yet been found.
"Possible intermediate hosts could include minks, pangolins, rabbits, raccoon dogs and domestic cats (...) or species such as civets, badgers or related species of marten that were known to be infected with Sars coronavirus during the outbreak in Guangdong Province in China."
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© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210330-99-26859 / 3
WHO February 2020 report on a corona investigation in China
Embarek in Science magazine