Reporter : Zhang Jiawei / http://news.sciencenet.cn/htmlnews/2021/2/453082.shtm / Translation, editing : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA
A research team published a paper in the British journal Nature Communications on 9 February 2021 that they found SARS-CoV-2-related coronavirus in bats in a wildlife sanctuary in eastern Thailand but this research has not been able to pinpoint the origin and intermediate host of the novel coronavirus.
Researchers from Duke-National University of Singapore School of Medicine and other institutions have carried out surveillance investigations of the coronavirus. In an artificial cave in a wildlife sanctuary in eastern Thailand, they found a coronavirus in five great-horned chrysanthemum bats. The researchers named this coronavirus RacCS203.
Analysis shows that the genome similarity between this virus and SARS-CoV-2 is 91.5%, and it is also closely related to the bat coronavirus RmYN02 previously discovered in China. In addition, the researchers also detected neutralizing antibodies to the novel coronavirus in bats in this area of Thailand and a pangolin at a wildlife checkpoint in the south of the country.
The researchers pointed out that this provides evidence for the spread of SARS-CoV-2-related coronaviruses in Southeast Asia but the sample size and sampling area of this study are very limited. They believe that there are a large number of novel coronavirus-related coronaviruses in bats in many Asian countries and regions. Although the latest discovery cannot pinpoint the origin of SARS-CoV-2, it still helps to expand the scope of detection of covi related viruses.
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