The pangolin is innocent: they rule out that it was the animal that transmitted the coronavirus to humans

02/27/2020 - 11:29

• Clarín.com
• World

While the world seeks to fight the coronavirus , a strange mammal had remained in the eye of the storm. it is about the pangolin, which a group of scientists had pointed out as the link between bats and humans to develop the spread of the virus. However, in the last hours, this particular animal was "acquitted."

The same scientific team that last February 7 had announced that the coronavirus had passed from bats to people through a pangolin retracted .

After discarding the pangolin, researchers are still looking for answers (AFP).

His initial conclusion that the coronavirus found in a pangolin had a genome 99% equal to that of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 disease proved to be wrong. A new analysis of their data revealed that the equivalence between genomes is around 90%, insufficient to state that a pangolin was the origin of the epidemic.

The first conclusion was announced in a press release released by the Agricultural University of South China, which warned then that "the results are not definitive." And the publication of the genetic analysis on the bioRxiv server on February 20 revealed that the conclusion had been precipitated.

The 99% equivalence concerned only a small part of the coronavirus genome. Specifically, that of a protein that the virus uses to enter the cells it infects. But if the complete genome sequence is taken into account, the equivalence is reduced to 90.3%.

The error is due to “an embarrassing communication error between the bioinformatics group and the laboratory group,” said Xiao Linhua , co-author of the study, in statements collected on the Nature website, which advanced the news.

Since bats are natural reservoirs of coronaviruses, they are considered to be the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19 disease. But there is probably a species that acted as a bridge between bats and people, as happened with the SARS coronavirus in 2002 and the MERS since 2012.

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In the case of SARS, the bridge species is considered to be a palm civet (a raccoon-like carnivorous mammal), in which a 99.8% identical coronavirus was detected that infected people . In the case of the MERS, the bridge species are dromedaries.

Now, with Covid-19, it could be one of the many species that were sold in the Wuhan market, where the epidemic began.

Source: La Vanguardia