A study published today on the origin of COVID-19 provides new evidence to support the hypothesis of transmission of the infection to humans from infected animals sold at a market in Wuhan, China, in late 2019, reported Agence France-Presse, BTA reported.
Nearly five years after the emergence of the new coronavirus that causes this disease, the international scientific community has still not been able to determine with certainty its origin.
Although the first cases were initially detected in late 2019 in Wuhan, there are two opposing theories: a leak of the virus from a laboratory in the city where similar viruses are studied, or an animal carrier that infected people visiting a local market. The second hypothesis has more supporters in the scientific community.
The study, published today in the journal "Cell", is based on the analysis of more than 800 samples collected at this market, where various species of wild animals are sold. Collected in January 2020, after the market was closed, they were taken from surfaces, from various stalls in the market, including those selling wild animals, as well as from sewage.
With this type of data provided to the researchers by the Chinese scientists, "we cannot say for sure whether the animals (sold at the market) were infected or not", warned Florence Dibarre, a researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research and co-author of the study.
However, "our study confirms that at the end of 2019 "wild animals belonging to species such as raccoon dogs and civets were present in this market. And that these animals were present in the southwestern end of the market, which also happens to be the area where many traces of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 were found," she explained to AFP. The presence of these species in the market, identified as likely intermediate carriers of the virus between bats and humans, has been disputed and so far only photographic evidence and the results of a study describing the animals sold in Wuhan have been available, AFP points out.