Scientists Say Virus May Have Come From Bats

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People visit the open market wearing face masks in hopes to prevent contracting the spreading coronavirus in Hong Kong, Monday, Feb, 3, 2020. In Hong Kong, thousands of health care workers were threatening to go on strike Tuesday unless the government agrees to talks before a 6 p.m. Monday deadline. Hong Kong has recorded 14 cases of the virus and has cut flights and train and bus connections to the mainland, but a push is growing for the semi-autonomous Chinese city to close the border completely. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)

BEIJING (AP) – Chinese scientists say they have more evidence that the new virus that recently emerged in China likely originated in bats. In two papers published Monday in the journal Nature, scientists report that genome sequences from several patients in Wuhan show the virus is closely related to the viruses that cause Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS.

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In one study, Shi Zhen-Li and colleagues at the Wuhan Institute of Virology reported that genome sequences from seven patients were 96% identical to a bat coronavirus. SARS is also believed to originate in bats, although it jumped to civet cats before infecting people in the 2002-2003 international outbreak. Although scientists suspect the latest virus outbreak in China began at a seafood market in Wuhan where wild animals were on sale and in contact with people, the animal source has not yet been pinpointed.

“In essence, it’s a version of SARS that spreads more easily but causes less damage,” said Ian Jones, a professor of virology at the University of Reading who was not connected to the two studies. “The virus also uses the same receptor, the door used to get into human cells, which explains transmission and why it causes pneumonia,” he said in a statement.


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Just Sayin'
Just Sayin'
4 years ago

Bats must be a delicacy in China. Yum.

Yaakov Doe
Yaakov Doe
4 years ago

Bats in the soup instead of kreplach pr knaidalach is the Chinese way. All kind of animals for consumption are sold at the shuks in China, while in New York’s Chinatown there’s nothing for exotic than turtles.

Phineas Eicher
Phineas Eicher
4 years ago

The moral of the story is that bats are friends, not food.