Covid “can come from raccoons in the Wuhan market”: mystery about the new data (immediately disappeared)

New evidence in favor oforigin of the Sars-CoV-2 pandemic from a market of Wuhan. The New York Times reports it, reporting the results of a survey conducted by an international team of virologists who allegedly found genetic data from a market in Wuhan that would allow to relate in virus with raccoon-dogs (tanukiin Japanese, ed)
for sale there.

If confirmed, these data would bring further arguments in favor of the thesis that the pandemic originated from wildlife trade.

The genetic data comes from swabs taken at a wholesale seafood market starting in January 2020, shortly after it closed precisely on suspicion that it was linked to the origin of a new viral agent.

The researchers also analyzed the walls, floors, cages and trolleys used to transport the cages. In the coronavirus positive samples, genetic material was found in significant quantities that corresponded to the animal, which is a canid (perhaps an ancestor of the primitive fox) also present in Italy, which also feeds on food waste.

The confusion of genetic material of the virus and the animal it does not prove that a raccoon-dog was infected. And even if it was, it wouldn’t be proven or clear whether the animal could have spread the virus to people. Another animal could have done it or, conversely, someone infected with the virus could have passed the virus to the raccoon dog. But the analysis – reports the New York Times — determined that the raccoons, which are capable of transmitting the coronavirus, deposited genetic signatures in the same place where the genetic material of the virus was left behind: a scenario in which the virus had spread into humans from a wild animal. However, a report detailing the research team’s findings has not yet been released.

“We have already seen how this virus can live in different species – comments al Health Courier Fabrizio Pregliascoassociate professor of General and Applied Hygiene at the Virology section of the Department of Biomedical Sciences for Health of the University of Milan -, in this news of the raccoon dog there is no real news, it is another species that may have originated the leap in humans of SARS-CoV-2. With SARS-CoV-2, a “Pandora’s box” of the human-animal mix of viruses has been discovered. It’s a very large inter-species exchange that we’ve seen before with the flu virus. From here to sanction which mammal was at the origin of the leap of species towards man there is a long way: the proof proven backwards does not exist yet and it is difficult to prove. It is certainly another piece that confirms the importance of “One Health”, the health of people and that of the ecosystem are inextricably linked and require global approaches and efforts, such as the fundamental one of zoonotic surveillance which must be raised to very high levels.