Raccoon dogs may be involved in the emergence of COVID-19 – research
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Raccoon dogs that were traded in the market in Wuhan, China, where the outbreak of the epidemic occurred, may have been involved in the emergence of the COVID-19 virus. This is stated in the analysis published in the Gisaid scientific database, writes The Guardian. As noted in The Atlantic, the genetic samples for the study were recently uploaded to an international database, but when scientists asked about them in China, they were removed. An international group of virus experts studied genetic samples from the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan, which were taken in the first weeks after the epidemic began. Photo: kwasny222/Depositphotos By that time, the animals had already been removed from the market, however, the researchers took smears from walls, floors, metal cages and carts that were often used to transport animals. Those swabs that contained the genetic material of a raccoon dog gave a positive result for the coronavirus. At the same time, according to scientists, this does not prove that these animals were the source of the virus. “The discovery of raccoon dogs infected with Sars-CoV-2 raises the possibility that coronavirus-infected farm animals were an important link in the chain of events that led to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this does not disprove the theory that the virus escaped from a laboratory,” says Jonathan Stoye, a virologist and senior group leader at the Francis Crick Institute in London. What exactly provoked the appearance of the COVID-19 virus is still not completely known. Photo: belizar/Depositphotos “I think we’re getting to the point where we can look at COVID-19 the same way we look at seasonal flu,” said Michael Ryan, the WHO’s director of emergencies. It will be recalled that on March 1, 2023, the FBI announced that the COVID-19 pandemic was probably caused by a leak from a laboratory in China. Before that, the US Department of Energy announced the probable outbreak of a pandemic due to a leak from a laboratory in China. Although in 2020, scientists from the Scripps Research Translational Institute and other institutions stated that the virus has a natural origin. The World Health Organization also suggested that “the virus probably first spread from infected bats to humans via an intermediate animal carrier.” However, scientists do not have enough evidence to confirm the version about bats. Read also: WHO predicted the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, which claimed 7 million lives
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