From the very first moment of the new Corona outbreak in China and then many countries in the world, there was a research belief, which turned into a major news story in almost every newspaper in the world, that the direct source of the new Corona virus is a type of bat called “horseshoe bat”.

However, the results of two separate studies issued on March 26, indicating that another animal may be the intermediate carrier that transmitted the virus to humans, and is the Pangolins.

The group of diseases that are transmitted from animals to humans is called zoonosis, and many viruses have passed from the animal world to the human world to cause real disasters, such as HIV, which is transmitted from chimpanzees, or Ebola virus. One of the varieties of fruit-eating bats that has been transmitted to humans.

Squamous Anteater Samples



In the first study, published in the journal Nature, it was stated that during experiments conducted by researchers from the University of Hong Kong’s Virology Department, a test that included 43 organic specimens from the scaly anteater had found similarities to the corona’s RNA in six of them.

In additional confirmatory experiments, it was conducted on twelve Pangolins, three of which found to contain RNA resembles that of the Coronavirus.

Recent studies suggest that the intermediate host of the emerging coronavirus is the scaly anteater (Wikipedia)

RNA is a biochemical molecule found in almost all organisms and some types of viruses. In the emerging corona, for example, this molecule carries genetic information about transcription of the virus itself into living cells.

According to the study, the similarity ratios between the observed RNA in all of these samples, and the DNA of the emerging corona virus are 85-92%.

Additional evidence

As for the study of the American Chemical Society, which was published in the Journal of Proteome Research, it indicates that the percentage of similarity of samples taken from the scaly anteater with the emerging corona virus reaches 91%.

Also, the researchers used larger, more accurate data sets, methods, and databases to analyze the novelty of the Corona genome and found that previous allegations of the direct relationship between scaly eater, snakes or HIV are inaccurate.

The results of the two studies suggest that the scaly anteater is the intermediate host that transmitted the virus from the animal world to the human world, but despite this, there may be other intermediate families besides the scaly anteater.

Additional evidenn order to prevent similar viral leaps, we must work to regulate markets for the sale of wild animals, especially in China (Wikimedia)ce covid

Although it is close to extinction, and some laws prohibit its use, whether in food, alternative medicine, or for the purposes of garment making, the artisan anteater is still being sold illegally in the markets of China, and several other countries.

The researchers believe in this scope that the best solution to prevent similar viral leaps is to work to regulate the markets for the sale of animals (for eating or raising) at the global level, especially in China.

Dangerous markets