Genetic material collected at a Chinese market near where the first human COVID cases were detected shows that
a raccoon dog's DNA combined with the virus
,
adding evidence to the theory that the pandemic originated in animals
. not in a laboratory, say international specialists.
“This information does not provide a definitive answer to how the pandemic started, but every bit of information is important in getting us closer to that answer,” said World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus
.
It is still not known for sure how the coronavirus emerged
.
Many scientists assume that it most likely jumped from animals to people -- as many other viruses have done before -- at a wildlife market in Wuhan, China.
Caged raccoon dog.
The debate on the origin of the coronavirus
In Wuhan there are numerous laboratories involved in collecting and studying various coronaviruses
, fueling theories that scientists say are plausible that the virus could have escaped from one of them.
The new findings do not answer the question, and they have not been formally reviewed by other experts or published in any prestigious journal.
Tedros criticized China for not sharing genetic information sooner.
In a press conference, he declared: "this data could have been and should have been shared three years ago."
The samples were taken from surfaces at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan
, where the first human cases of COVID were detected in late 2019.
Wuhan market in China.
The coronavirus would have been generated there.
Tedros said scientists from the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently included the genetic sequences in the world's largest database on viruses.
They were later removed from that location, but not before a French biologist stumbled across the information and showed it to a group of non-Chinese scientists trying to find the origin of the coronavirus.
Could the raccoon dog be the origin of the coronavirus?
The data indicates that some of
the COVID-positive samples collected from a wild animal stall also contained raccoon dog genes
, an indication that the animals may have caught the virus, according to the scientists.
The analysis of these experts was first published in The Atlantic magazine.
"There is a good chance that the animals that deposited the DNA also deposited the virus," said Stephen Goldstein, a virologist at the University of Utah who participated in the data analysis.
"If one were to do environmental sampling after a zoonotic spill event...this is essentially exactly what you would expect to find."
These canines, called raccoon dogs because of their raccoon-like faces
, are often raised for their fur and sold for meat at animal markets in various parts of China.
Scientists taking samples from the raccoon dog.
Ray Yip, an epidemiologist and founding member of the China office of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the new findings are significant, though not conclusive.
"The market environmental sampling data released by the China CDC is by far the strongest evidence to date supporting an animal origin (of COVID-19)," Yip told the AP in an email.
It is not related to the new analysis.
The WHO technical director for COVID-19, Maria Van Kerkhove, warned that the analyzes found no virus inside any animal or any conclusive evidence that any had infected people.
With information from the Associated Press agency
look too
The story of the Latino NASA astronaut who has been stranded in space for months on a Russian ship
Equinox 2023: the rituals of Mhoni Vidente to attract prosperity in this new stage
