WHO: Raccoon dogs may have been the source of Covid19 | world | Pleno.News
Animal is sold at the market in Wuhan, where the pandemic started
Pleno.News
03/18/2023 6:46 p.m
Raccoon Dog Photo: Pixabay
The World Health Organization (WHO) expert group investigating the origin of the coronavirus that causes Covid19 raised this Saturday (18) the possibility that the raccoon dog, an animal sold at the market in Wuhan, where the Pandemic began, was instrumental in the transmission of the pathogen to humans.
Recently uncovered data from laboratory samples taken at the market indicate a strong presence of this animal’s DNA, and photos from the Huanan Market in Wuhan, central China, prove its meat or meat products were sold at stalls, it said in a statement from the WHO.
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Although this is not conclusive evidence for the intermediate or original hosts of the virus, the data do indicate the presence of animals that may have been the source of human infections said the experts of the Scientific Advisory Group on the Origin of New Pathogens ( Sago, its English acronym).
The data comes from analysis by the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published on an openaccess scientific platform in January, but the text was removed when European experts discovered, studied and reported their findings to the WHO. .
According to Sago, these data indicate that none of the 457 direct analyzes of samples from 18 animal species on the market were positive for the coronavirus SARSCoV2, which causes Covid19. However, traces of mitochondrial DNA from the mentioned raccoon dog, a dog related to foxes, have been identified in environmental samples.
Other animals whose DNA was discovered in environmental samples from the market and which the WHO says may be susceptible to transmission of the coronavirus include the Malaysian hedgehog and the bamboo rat, they said.
Sago strongly recommends researchers in China to study the sources of the animals and animal products in the Huanan market before it closes on January 1, 2020, the WHO expert group concluded.
MEETINGS
Experts from Sago, the CDC and others who had access to them when they were published online have held several meetings over the past seven days to discuss the findings of these investigations, which China has again shown opaqueness by using them not directly shared with the WER.
The international organization emphasized when this new advance in the investigations into the mysterious origin of Covid19 was revealed that there are still different hypotheses about the origin of the coronavirus. The disease has already caused nearly seven million deaths, including 5,000 in the last week alone.
Among these hypotheses, in addition to transmission from one or more animals to humans, would be one that constitutes contagion through the food chain, or one that assumes it could accidentally leave a laboratory where it was kept for study purposes.
*EFE