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A team of researchers from the University of East England (UEA), the London Zoological Society (ZSL) and Public Health England (PHE) has discovered a SARS-CoV-2-related coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The new virus was discovered in horseshoe bats, according to him SciTechDaily.
However, scientists have not found out whether this new virus has been transmitted to humans or whether this could happen if it does not mutate.
The researchers collected fecal samples from more than 50 small horseshoe bats in Sommerset, Gloucestershire and Wales and sent them for analysis to Public Health England.
Genetic sequencing of samples revealed a new coronavirus in bats that researchers called “RhGB01”.
This is the first sarbecovirus (SARS-CoV) – a species of coronavirus related to SARS-CoV-2 – discovered in small horseshoe bats and first discovered in the UK.
The team claims that the bats have almost certainly carried the virus for a very long time and that it has not been discovered so far because no tests have been done in the UK.
“Small horseshoe bats are found in Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia and the bats we tested are located at the western end of their habitat. Similar viruses have been found in other horseshoe bat species in China, Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe.
Our research expands both the geographical area and the species affected by these types of viruses and suggests that they are more widespread. These bats have almost certainly carried the virus for a very long time – probably for thousands of years, ”said Diana Bell, an expert in emerging zoonotic diseases at UEA’s Faculty of Biology.
Coronavirus found in the UK is not a danger to humans because the part that allows it to attach to cells to infect them (such as the Spike protein in SARS-CoV-2) is not compatible with human cells.
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