Genetic material collected at a market in China near where the first human cases of COVID-19 emerged showed raccoon dog DNA mixed with the coronavirus. According to international experts, the findings strengthen the evidence that COVID-19 originated in animals, not from a laboratory.
“The data does not provide definitive answers about how the pandemic started, but every piece of data is important in bringing us closer to the answers we seek,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO).World Health Organization/WHO), Friday (17/3), as reported by Associated Press.
It is still not clear how the coronavirus appeared. Many scientists believe the virus may have jumped from animals to humans at a wild animal market in Wuhan, China. This route of transmission has also occurred in previous viruses in the past.
These new findings have yet to provide answers and have not been reviewed by other experts or published in peer-reviewed journals (peer-reviewed).
Tedros criticized China for not sharing the genetic information sooner.
“This data could and should have been shared three years ago,” Tedros told reporters at the conference.
Genetic Sequence Data Deleted
Researchers collected surface samples at the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan in early 2020. The first human case of COVID-19 was found at the market in late 2019.
Tedros said scientists recently uploaded the genetic sequence of COVID-19 to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention/China CDC), the world’s largest general virus database.
The data is then deleted. However, a French biologist stumbled upon the data and shared it with a group of scientists outside of China, who are researching the origins of the coronavirus.
The data showed that several COVID positive samples collected from a stall that traded wild animals also contained the raccoon dog gene. According to scientists, the findings indicate the animals may have been infected with the coronavirus.
“It’s possible that the animals that harbored the DNA also harbored the virus,” said Stephen Goldstein, a virologist at the University of Utah who helped analyze the data.
The raccoon dog breed got its nickname because of its raccoon-like face. Raccoon dogs are commonly farmed for their fur and sold for meat in markets across China.
The data is uncertain but important
Ray Yip, an epidemiologist, said the findings were important, although not certain. Yip is one of the founders of the US Centers for Disease Control office in China.
“The market environment sample data released by the China CDC is by far the most solid evidence to support the (theory) of the virus originating in animals,” Yip told the Associated Press by email. He is not associated with the new analysis.
WHO’s COVID-19 technical lead, Maria Van Kerkhove, cautioned that the analysis found no virus in any animals and found no strong evidence that animals infect humans.
“What is this [analisis] present are clues to help us understand what may have happened,” said van Kerkhove.
Van Kerkhove added that the international group had informed WHO that they found DNA from other animals as well as raccoon dogs in samples from seafood markets.
The genetic code of the coronavirus is very similar to that of bat coronaviruses. Many scientists suspect that COVID-19 was transmitted to humans directly from bats or through intermediate animals such as pangolins, civet cats or raccoon dogs
Goldstein and his colleagues say their analysis is the first solid indication that wild animals may have been infected with the coronavirus. But it could also be humans who brought the corona virus to the market and infected the raccoon dogs or infected other humans by leaving traces of the virus near the animals.
After the scientists contacted the China CDC, they said, the genetic sequence was removed from the global database of the virus.
Gang Fu, the former head of the China CDC, did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment from the Associated Press. But he told the magazine Science that viral genetic sequences in raccoon dogs is nothing new.
“It is known that there is illegal trade in wild animals and because of that the market was immediately closed,” he said. [ft/ah]
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