Subhi Agrawal
On Thursday, additional data from a study on the origin of Covid-19 supported the notion that people initially contracted the virus from infected animals at a Chinese market in late 2019.
The worldwide community still cannot pinpoint the precise origin of the Covid virus, nearly five years after it first surfaced.
The first cases were discovered in Wuhan, China, towards the end of 2019, but the two main theories’ proponents have been at odds with one another.
“We cannot say with certainty whether the animals (at the market) were infected or not,”
The findings, published in the journal Cell, supports one notion that the virus slipped from a Wuhan lab studying related viruses, while another proposes that people contracted Covid via infected wild animals sold at a nearby market.
The scientific community agrees with the latter, yet debate continues. The study is based on over 800 samples taken from Wuhan’s Huanan Seafood Market.
After the market was closed in January 2020, samples were gathered from sewers and the surfaces of stalls selling wildlife rather than from actual animals or humans.
Based on this kind of information that the Chinese government released, study co-author Florence Debarre said “We cannot say with certainty whether the animals (at the market) were infected or not,”
A study confirms wild animals, including raccoon dogs and civets, were present at a market in France at the end of 2019, notably in the southwest corner, where a significant amount of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19, was detected., according to an evolutionary biologist from France’s CNRS research agency.
These little mammals have the ability to contract viruses that are comparable to those that affect humans, which has led to the theory that they act as a transitional host for SARS-CoV-2 between humans and bats.
Even though there were some photos and research from 2021, there has previously been disagreement over the animals’ existence in the Huanan market.
“There was more DNA from mammalian wildlife species in these samples than human DNA,”
According to the study, “animal carts, a cage, a garbage cart, and a hair/feather removal machine” were among the several components of one stall that tested positive for the Covid virus.
It also added “There was more DNA from mammalian wildlife species in these samples than human DNA,”
The Covid-positive samples from this stall contained mammal DNA, including that of raccoon dogs, bamboo rats, and palm civets.
The study said “These data indicate either that the animals present at this stall shed the SARS-CoV-2 detected on the animal equipment or that early unreported human case(s) of Covid-19 shed virus in the exact same location as the detected animals,”
The research confirms that the most recent common ancestor of the Covid virus strain found in market samples is genetically identical to the original pandemic strain, indicating early diversity of the virus is found at the market, as expected.
James Wood, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Cambridge University, cited a study indicating that wildlife stalls in Wuhan’s Huanan Seafood Market were a significant hub for the Covid-19 pandemic’s emergence.
The research highlights the lack of action to limit wildlife live trade, biodiversity loss, and land use changes that are likely drivers of pandemic emergence, and these aspects are not included in the draft pandemic treaty being negotiated by countries.
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