Geneticists have proven that the original source of the coronavirus was indeed a market in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
It was from there that COVID-19 began to spread in late 2019 and early 2020. Soon, as we know, a pandemic was declared.
Thus, information about this location as the original source of the spread of COVID, which was previously considered only an assumption, was confirmed and became a proven fact.
Animals
This was proven by Chinese, American and European biologists who studied the structure of many fragments of coronavirus genomes collected in the territory of the aforementioned market at the beginning of the pandemic.
Scientists have found evidence that wild animals brought to the market were the first and only source of COVID-19.
This was reported by the TASS agency, citing the researchers’ publication in the scientific journal Cell.
However, it is noted that many animals were removed from the market before specialists from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) arrived there.
For this reason, scientists have no direct evidence that these creatures were infected with COVID.
However, experts found fragments of their DNA and RNA on the same counters and stalls where the viral particles were found.
This is what would happen if the market contained sick animals, said Florence Debarre, a leading researcher at the Paris Institute of Ecology and Natural Sciences.
Work of scientists
To help put an end to the story of SARS-CoV-2, which has killed more than 7 million people, the CDC has given leading epidemiologists, biologists, and geneticists access to all the biospecimens collected from the Wuhan market in the early days of the pandemic.
Based on the data obtained, scientists were able to localize the approximate source of the infection in the western part of the market.
This made it possible to study the earliest history of the spread of the coronavirus.
Scientists have deciphered the genome structure of virus samples found at the market.
They compared it with the RNA of viral particles that were extracted from the bodies of the virus's first victims.
The scientists also analyzed how other fragments of DNA and RNA were distributed throughout the market.
The study showed that both the genome structure and the level of diversity were the same for virus samples from the market and from the bodies of the first carriers of COVID.
This circumstance, according to experts, indicates that the virus is of animal origin, and the market in Wuhan is its only source.
Raccoon dogs
This conclusion is supported by the fact that viral particles were found in the premises in the western part of the market where raccoon dogs, rabbits and bamboo rats were kept.
That is, those animals were kept there that were capable of becoming infected with the coronavirus and spreading it.
In addition, fragments of mitochondrial DNA of these mammals were found in “infected” locations of the market.
The latter also suggests that animals could spread the pathogen.
Subsequent analysis showed that the most likely carriers of the virus - raccoon dogs - were not brought to Wuhan from northern China or Russia.
It is assumed that they could have arrived there from Southeast Asia or from the central or southern regions of China.
In this regard, scientists hope that studying wild animal populations in these regions will help to more accurately determine the origin of the coronavirus.
