Jakarta –
Deny the theory of the origin of Corona leaked from the Wuhan lab, Chinese experts claim to have found 24 previously unknown strains of the Corona virus in bats. In a small area of Yunnan province, there is an ‘tremendous diversity’ of the bat coronavirus that is believed to be able to spread to humans.
The Shandong University researcher admitted that the bat samples found were very similar to SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 which is now a pandemic. Chinese researchers collected samples between May 2019 and November 2020 from bats in the Mengla area of Yunnan province. They tested feces and urine, and took swabs from the mouths of bats.
“In total, we collected 24 coronavirus genomes, 341 novels from different bat species, including four coronaviruses such as SARS-CoV-2,” the researchers wrote in their report, published in the journal Cell on Thursday. They found four of these viruses in nine individual samples.
“These results clearly indicate that viruses closely related to SARS-CoV-2 continue to circulate in bat populations, and in some areas may occur at relatively high frequency,” claim the researchers, quoted by the Daily Mail.
They said that in one of the samples taken from a species of horseshoe bat, it was genetically very similar to the SARS-Cov-2 virus. Furthermore, researchers believe that the Corona virus is more likely to evolve naturally from animals to humans, compared to the leaked theory from the Wuhan laboratory which has recently become a hot topic of discussion.
“Bats are well-known reservoirs for causing severe disease in humans and have been associated with overflows of Hendra virus, Marburg virus, Ebola virus and, particularly Corona virus,” they wrote.
“In addition to bats and humans, the Corona virus can infect a variety of domestic and wild animals, including pigs, cows, mice, cats, dogs, chickens, deer and porcupines,” they explained.
Corona’s origins are still a ‘mystery’
A different perspective on the origin of Corona comes from a new journal released by Scientific Reports. The Oxford University-led study found that no bats or pangolins were sold in the Wuhan wet market, making it difficult for them to conclude how the transmission of the virus from bats to humans occurred there.
However, there were more than 50,000 animals sold freely in the Wuhan wet market from 2017 to November 2019. The animals were kept in dirty cages and left alone by the traffickers.
Experts say this provides many ways for COVID-19 to infect humans. “Some of these species are known to host a variety of diseases,” explains Chris Newman, from the University of Oxford.
“These creatures are sold at high prices. Marmot meat, for example, costs five times that of pork,” he continued.
China claims to have tackled the sale of wild animals, but a year into the pandemic has seen no improvement. For more details, see on the next page.
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