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The SARS-CoV-2-related virus, which causes COVID-19, has been found in bats living in a wildlife reserve in eastern Thailand, the BBC reports.
Researchers speculate that related coronaviruses may be circulating among bats in many Asian countries and regions.
Their discovery extended the area where SARS-CoV-2-like viruses were found to 4,800 km. The results of the study were published in the journal Nature Communications.
In a published article, the researchers indicated that the sampling location (only in Thailand) and the sample size were limited, but are still convinced that coronaviruses “with high genetic similarity to SARS-CoV-2 are very widespread among bats in many Asian countries and regions. ” .
Results from previous studies suggest that SARS-CoV-2 was transmitted first to animals, most likely to bats, and then to humans.
The exact origin of the virus is unknown, it has been tested by specialists authorized by the World Health Organization (WHO).
In a recent study, a team of scientists led by Lin-Fa Wang from the University of Singapore found a close relative of SARS-CoV-2 who studied horseshoe bats that lived in an artificial cave in a Thai wildlife reserve.
The isolated virus, called RacCS203, is very similar in genetic code to SARS-CoV-2 (it overlaps 91.5 percent of the genome). It is also closely related to another coronavirus, RmYN02, which is common in bats in Yunnan province, China. The genomic similarity between RmYN02 and SARS-CoV-2 is 93.6%.
Researchers from Thailand, Singapore, China, Australia and the United States (USA) examined the antibodies formed in the bodies of these bats and the illicitly traded weasel in southern Thailand.
According to them, the antibodies neutralized the virus that caused the pandemic. This fact further supports the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2-related coronaviruses circulate in Southeast Asia.
WHO mission in China: 5 unanswered questions
The WHO expert mission to China ended this week with no more than 2.3 million sources of potentially deadly coronavirus.
However, a group of foreign experts agreed that the main carriers of the coronavirus are probably bats, but humans may have infected it through other mammals.
Experts have also stated that the controversial theory that the virus causing the COVID-19 infection has spread from a single laboratory in Uhane is largely unacceptable.
Huge pressure and global attention accompanied the team’s work in China. Peter Daszak, a British zoologist who said he had to work in “the most politically charged environment possible.”
After almost a month of a mission on the origin of the virus, we still do not know five things.
Main carrier
According to experts, tens of thousands of samples from wild and domestic animals from all over China were analyzed, but none of them contained the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19.
But Dutch virologist and WHO team member Marion Koopmans said animals most susceptible to the virus, such as bamboo rats, badgers and rabbits, were sold in the Wuhan Huanan market, where the first outbreak of the virus occurred. .
Daszak also said that the new bat viruses discovered in Thailand and Cambodia were “drawing our attention to Southeast Asia.”
“I think we will find that one day [pirminį šaltinį]He told reporters.
Primary information
There have been concerns about the availability of data to scientists in China. Beijing has been accused of neglecting the initial outbreak of the disease in Wuhan in late 2019.
Thea Kolsen Fischer, a Danish epidemiologist working for the WHO team, said after the meeting that the team had not received raw data and relied on previous analyzes by Chinese researchers.
In many cases, he said, it was common for outsiders to get “aggregate data.”
Members of the WHO team said they had every opportunity to visit the facilities and meet people.
Cold chain transmission
Beijing has repeatedly hypothesized that the virus reached China in packaged cold chain products, such as imported frozen seafood, and linked such products to recent outbreaks in China.
WHO’s head of emergencies Michael Ryan has previously said that “there is no evidence that food or food chains contribute to transmission.”
However, a visit to China by the WHO mission seems to have given some weight to this theory.
Liang Wannian, China’s chief of mission, said the investigation showed that the virus “could be transported long distances in frozen products” and that environmental samples from the Huanan market, which sold wildlife and frozen seafood, showed “widespread contamination. “with the virus.
However, WHO team leader Peter Ben Embarek cautioned that it was not yet clear whether humans could be infected by the virus from contaminated cold loop surfaces.
Origin not in China?
Beijing has repeatedly called on the WHO to begin looking for the origins of the pandemic in the United States, and State Department officials have drawn attention to conspiracy theories that the virus has “escaped” from the US military research laboratory. microbial.
To deflect international criticism about its actions at the beginning of the outbreak, China also highlighted studies showing that COVID-19 cases in Italy and other countries could have emerged as early as the end of 2019.
However, in publishing the report’s findings, Koopmans said the investigations “do not provide complete evidence of the previous circulation of the virus” outside of China.
However, he acknowledged that experts “should definitely go looking for evidence of prior circulation.”
Whats Next?
According to M. Koopmans, the farms supplying wildlife to the Wuhan Juan market should receive more attention from researchers.
In addition to more extensive research on wildlife, especially bats, in China and beyond, blood samples must be retested using “new methods” to search for previous and unnoticed COVID-19 cases in Wuhan in December 2019. said Ben Embarek.
China, for its part, is eager to see the next phase of investigation into the origin of the virus take place elsewhere.
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