Publisher : Central News Agency / Translation, editing : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA
According to a report published in The Wall Street Journal, experts from the World Health Organization have tracked down the source of covid and have narrowed the scope, listing ferret badgers and rabbits sold at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China as animals suspected of transmitting the novel coronavirus to humans. Since the covid outbreak for more than a year, Beijing has repeatedly hinted that the novel coronavirus originated outside of China.
After several months of negotiations with the World Health Organization (WHO), the expert team went to Wuhan in January to investigate the source of the epidemic for several weeks and initially determined that the possibility of laboratory leakage was "very low."
According to reports, the WHO team has multiple assumptions about the source of the epidemic, and it is still uncertain whether SARS-CoV-2 was first transmitted to humans from animals in the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, or it has already spread elsewhere but they started from the existing evidence and have a better understanding of the animals that may become the media. WHO experts have listed the Huanan Seafood Market as the focus of the investigation because this market is related to the cluster infection at the beginning of the outbreak. WHO scientists believe that the novel coronavirus is most likely to originate from bats, and it is another species that spreads it to humans through farms or markets. Many scientists have hinted that the novel coronavirus may be spread through China’s illegal wildlife trade. Team members said that it is necessary to further investigate the suppliers of ferret badgers, rabbits and other animals sold in the Huanan Seafood Market.
After Europe discovered that the novel coronavirus is spreading back and forth between mink and humans, WHO investigators hope that China will conduct large-scale testing of domestic mink farms. Peter Daszak, a zoologist who participated in the investigation, said that there were ferret badgers in the animal carcasses found in the cold storage of the Huanan Seafood Market. Although the new coronavirus test was negative, ferret badgers may still be the virus host. The ferret badger belongs to the Mustelidae family together with weasel and otter. It is mainly distributed in southern China. Although it is a conservation animal, it is often hunted for food or trade in fur. Daszak said that there are also traces of rabbits in the South China Seafood Market, and rabbits are easily infected with SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19).
Marion Koopmans, a Dutch virologist in the WHO team, also listed ferret badgers and rabbits in the Huanan Seafood Market as animals suspected of carrying and spreading the novel coronavirus. Daszak said that the supply chain of 10 vendors selling wild animals in the Huanan Seafood Market includes farms in Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan. These Chinese provinces are adjacent to Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar. He said this is a major discovery because two viruses that are highly similar to SARS-CoV-2 were found in bats in Yunnan Province. However, Daszak and other team members said that the investigation of the source of the epidemic also needs to track down other countries, especially Thailand, Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries that have recently discovered similar coronaviruses.
Dominic Dwyer, an Australian microbiologist on the WHO team, said that it makes sense to include the epidemic in Southeast Asia and other countries, "but this does not mean that there is an interpretation that the epidemic actually originated from a certain place or did not originate in China." He said that it is necessary to further confirm which animals are legally or illegally sold in the Huanan Seafood Market. Although the wildlife trade is illegal, it does not mean that it has not happened. "The thinking process must avoid "it will not happen because it is illegal." Regardless, we have to trace the clues". (Central News Agency)
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