Raccoon dogs (Nyctereutes procyonoides) were previously found to be susceptible to and able to spread SARS-CoV-2.
Michael Breuer
French scientists have found genetic sequences put into a database by Chinese researchers suggesting that the causative coronavirus may have originated in animals such as raccoon dogs in Huanan province. This week, the long-standing debate over the origins of covid-19 took a different turn at Wuhan’s seafood market.
Within days, the sequences were taken down by the same researchers, but other scientists have preliminarily downloaded them to investigate further.
Maria van Kerhove of the World Health Organization (WHO) said at a press conference on March 17, “It is very important that all the data related to how this pandemic started will be available soon. It is important.
“There are several hypotheses that need to be considered, such as how the virus entered the human population from bats, through intermediate hosts, or through breaches of biosecurity from laboratories.” There is no definite answer.”
The South China market has long been considered a likely source of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Many of the first cases of covid-19 in December 2019 were people associated with COVID-19, and stalls sold a variety of goods. Live and dead animals as well as seafood.
Bats are believed to be the primary hosts for SARS-CoV-2. The ancestry of this virus may have passed from bats to marketed intermediate hosts and then to humans.
An alternative explanation is that the virus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where researchers are known to be studying bat coronaviruses but not SARS-CoV-2. It is said that it did. This is a not-so-popular idea among scientists, but in February the U.S. Department of Energy said it was the most likely explanation, but did not release supporting evidence. .
Gene sequences, now uploaded by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention into a global virology database called GISAID, may reveal more about the origin of SARS-CoV-2. These sequences are derived from swabs taken from various surfaces in the market after the market closed in early 2020.
They were brought to the attention of Florence Debarre of the French National Center for Scientific Research, who shared her findings with WHO on March 14. “When I logged in the market, she was looking at sequences, but she didn’t expect to find the data she was looking for,” she says.
Debarre declined to say more until the analysis was complete, but Van Kerkhove said at a press conference: Among these animals is the raccoon dog. ”
raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) were previously found to be susceptible to and able to spread SARS-CoV-2. “I know they can carry it well,” said Alice Hughes of the University of Hong Kong.
This does not prove that a raccoon dog or any other animal on the market contracted the virus in December 2019, and such evidence is not currently available, Hughes said. I’m here.
Jonathan Stoy of the Francis Crick Institute in London said: This is another link in the chain we would expect to see if the pandemic started that way. ”
Behind the information shared by Debarre, Van Kerkhove said the WHO has asked the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to republish the genetic data. “The big problem is that this data exists and is not readily available to the international community, not to mention it should have been made available years ago.”
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