Pangolins Allegedly To Be Corona Virus Host

JAKARTA - The outbreak of the deadly corona virus in China is thought to have spread from bats to humans. Reported by Reuters, a number of Chinese scientists recently suspected this virus was transmitted through the illegal trade in pangolins.

"This latest discovery will be very important for the prevention and control (of the virus)," said the research results of South China Agricultural University in its official website.

Despite being protected by international law, pangolins are one of the most trafficked mammals in Asia because their meat is considered a delicacy in countries such as China and their scales are used in traditional medicine.

The corona virus outbreak is believed to have originally spread in a market in Wuhan City, central Hubei Province, which also sells live animals.

Health experts think the virus may have originated in bats and then passed on to humans, possibly through other species.

The genome sequences of the coronavirus strains separated from the pangolins in the study were 99 percent identical to those of the infected, reports China's official Xinhua news agency. The study also found that pangolins were the most likely intermediate hosts for this problem.

But Dirk Pfeiffer, professor of veterinary medicine at City University Hong Kong, cautioned that this study is still a long way from proving pangolins transmit the virus.

"You can only draw more definite conclusions if you compare the prevalence (of the coronavirus) between different species based on a representative sample, which is almost certainly not," he said.

Even so, transmission to humans through the food market still needs to be proven, "added Pfeiffer.