Covid-19 may have started in raccoon dogs, new DNA evidence shows
Swabs taken from various surfaces at a seafood and live animal market in Wuhan, China, that were positive for the coronavirus also have evidence of DNA from raccoon dogs
By Clare Wilson
17 March 2023
Raccoon dogs have previously been found to be susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 and to be capable of spreading it
Michael Breuer
The long-running debate over the origins of covid-19 took another turn this week, after a French scientist spotted that genetic sequences put on a database by Chinese researchers suggest that the coronavirus responsible might have come from animals such as raccoon dogs at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan.
Within a few days, the sequences were removed by the same researchers – although some other scientists managed to download them beforehand and are investigating further.
“It is really critical that any and all data that relates to how this pandemic began be made available immediately,” Maria Van Kerkhove at the World Health Organization (WHO) said at a press conference on 17 March.
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“There are several hypotheses that need to be examined, including how the virus entered the human population, either from a bat, through an intermediate host or through a breach in biosecurity from a lab. And we don’t have a definitive answer.”
The Huanan market has long been seen as a probable origin for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, as many of the first cases of covid-19, in December 2019, were in people with a connection to it and the stalls sold a range of live and dead animals, not just seafood.
SARS-CoV-2’s original host is thought to be bats, as they carry many coronaviruses, although they haven’t yet been found with SARS-CoV-2. The ancestor of this virus may have jumped from bats to an intermediate host sold at the market, and then to people.
