When the Sars-COV-2 coronavirus began to accelerate in humans in 2020, scientists spent months looking for the so-called “intermediate host”, an animal from which the virus would have made the leap into the human species. Today, 3 years later, this question remains unanswered. And in that time, in the expert debate, the theory of a natural origin of the virus has alternated with the hypothesis of an escape from the laboratory. According to the latest hypothesis, the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus would have a link to raccoon dogs being sold at the Wuhan market, with new evidence supporting the theory that the pandemic could have been triggered by an infected animal infected by the illegal trade was treated by wild animals.
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The genetic data, the international media breaking the news reported, was extracted from swabs taken in and around the Huanan seafood wholesale market as of January 2020, shortly after Chinese authorities closed the market on suspicion that it is linked to the outbreak of a new virus. By that time, the animals had been removed from the facility, but researchers wiped down the walls, floors, wire cages, and carts used to transport cages and found the virus. In the samples that tested positive for the coronavirus, the international research team found animal genetic material, including large amounts, that matched the raccoon dog, the scientists involved in the analysis said. What the analysis can determine is that the raccoon dogs’ genetic signature is in the same place where the virus’ genetic material was left behind, but this mixing of genetic material cannot prove with certainty that the raccoon dog itself was infected. .
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Another animal could have transmitted the virus to humans, or someone who is infected could have transmitted the virus to a raccoon dog. The possibilities are manifold. But the evidence gleaned from that data – which was later removed from the Chinese database – is consistent with a scenario in which the virus would spread from a wild animal to humans. The content of the analysis was reported by some of the scientists who worked on it, but we read online in the New York Times that a report detailing the findings of the international research team has not yet been published. One sample in particular caught her eye: it was taken in early 2020 from a wagon at a particular booth that contained raccoon dogs in one cage above another with birds, an environment conducive to the transmission of new viruses. “At least one of these samples contained a lot of raccoon dog nucleic acid along with the virus nucleic acid,” said Stephen Goldstein, a virologist at the University of Utah who worked on the analysis. The mystery of the virus that arrived from China is still alive.