The possibility that the Sars-CoV-2 pandemic virus jumped from wild animals to humans who were illegally traded in a market in Wuhan has been around since the beginning of the pandemic, along with other theories. Now an international research team has apparently found new evidence that supports this thesis to some extent, even if it does not prove it. This reports the “New York Timesaccording to a report in the magazineTheAtlantic“.
According to the report, an international research team has discovered genetic traces in a database from swabs taken in and around the “Huanan Seafood Wholesale” market in Wuhan from January 2020, shortly after the Chinese authorities closed the market because they wanted a connection with the outbreak of a new virus suspected. Although there were no more animals at the market at the time the samples were taken, traces of genetic material from various animal species found their way from the walls, floors, metal cages and transport trolleys used for the animal trade.
Raccoon dog and virus genomes side by side
The team, which three scientists “The Atlantics” confirmed, found large amounts of DNA from the raccoon dog in the smears in addition to the genome of Sars-CoV-2 Nyctereutes procyonoides, also called Raccoon Dog, Tanuki or Enok. The animals are closely related to foxes, but look more like raccoons.
The joint appearance of virus and raccoon dog genomes does not necessarily prove that Nyctereutes procyonoides is also the transmitter. It is also possible that infected people left the virus RNA there and the raccoon dogs were not infected at all. However, it is known that raccoon dogs can become infected with Sars-Cov-2. But even the detection of an infected raccoon dog at the Wuhan market, which is impossible after three years, would not be proof that the virus jumped from this animal and there to humans at the market.
A spotlight on the illegal wildlife trade
However, the newly discovered genetic data from the market is “one of the most tangible evidence to date of how the virus could have jumped from wild animals to humans outside of a laboratory,” writes the “New York Times”. The results showed that “the samples from the market carrying early Covid lines were contaminated with DNA from wild animals,” said Jeremy Kamil, a virologist at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Shreveport who was not involved in the study . dr Kamil said this was not conclusive evidence that an infected animal caused the pandemic. This throws “a spotlight on the illegal animal trade”.
The samples that have now surfaced appear to come from the same Chinese scientists who published an analysis of some of these swab samples in February 2022. However, they had come to the conclusion that the virus traces discovered came from infected people, not from animals sold there. Subsequently, these researchers, some of whom are reportedly also linked to the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, uploaded the genetic sequences of the remaining samples from the Wuhan market to the “GISAID” database. The DNA traces of the raccoon dogs can be found in this data.
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