Is the world going to witness another pandemic anytime soon even when it struggles to contain the COVID-19 virus? This is a question that scientists are contemplating about and what more if this becomes a reality this time too the origin of it will be China’s infamous wet markets.
Last year the world witnessed the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic with severe acute respiratory syndrome originating from wildlife species sold in wet markets of China. In 2019, the first case of SARS-CoV2 virus causing COVID-19 was detected in China’s Wuhan city.
China has maintained that the first cases of SARS-CoV-2 likely emerged from animal to human transmission at a wet market in Wuhan. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has so far resulted in 253.6 million cases of infections and 5.11 million deaths.
Now a team of scientists have identified 18 mammalian viruses, which pose a high risk to humans and domestic animals from China’s infamous wet markets. Researchers from China, the US, Belgium and Australia claimed to have unearthed game animals that are commonly hunted or consumed as an exotic food in China.
The scientists are of the opinion that these animals consumed as exotic food have been potential reservoirs for SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2.
Findings of the researchers
The team examined many species for the first time and identified 71 mammalian viruses with 45 described for the first time.
Some of these have been banned by the Chinese government for trading or artificial breeding since the onset of COVID-19.
They performed an analysis of 1,725 game animals, representing 16 species and five mammalian orders, sampled across China.
Eighteen viruses examined were considered as potentially high risk to humans and domestic animals.
The team also found that Civets (Paguma larvata) carried the highest number of potentially high-risk viruses.
The Civets are cat-like carnivores which have been known as potential reservoirs for coronavirus.
The team also identified the transmission of bat coronavirus HKU8 from a bat to a civet and cross-species jumps of coronavirus.
The cross-species jumps of coronavirus was found from bats to hedgehogs and from birds to porcupines.
Avian influenza virus H9N2 was also identified in civets and Asian badgers, with the latter displaying respiratory symptoms.
The team of researchers also examined cases of likely human-to-wildlife virus transmission.
