Pangolins may not have passed coronavirus on to humans, Chinese scientists say
- Although the animals, also known as scaly anteaters, carry a very similar virus to the one that causes Covid-19, researchers say the genetic relationship is not close enough
- Virologist Zhang Zhigang says the search for the intermediate host should focus on animals that share habitats with bats and pangolins
Pangolins have been one of the main focuses of the search for the intermediate host of the virus. Photo: Imaginechina
Pangolins are unlikely to have been the hosts that passed
The endangered mammals, also known as scaly anteaters,
after a series of papers highlighted the close relationship between Sars-CoV-2, as the coronavirus is known, and similar viruses found in pangolins.
But a team led by Zhang Zhigang from Yunnan University, told Chinese publication Science Daily on Wednesday that the evidence suggested that these genetic similarities did not pass the generally accepted 99 per cent threshold needed to make the virus jump from pangolins to humans.
Researchers around the world are trying to track the way the new coronavirus infected humans and to put a stop to the pandemic,
Zhang said animals such as bats and pangolins were known to be natural hosts of similar viruses to Sars-CoV-2, but natural hosts normally could not pass these on to humans.
Instead, researchers needed to identify the intermediate host through which the coronavirus was transmitted.
Bats and pangolins have been the focus of attention after scientists identified them as carriers of viruses that share much of their genetic make-up with the coronavirus.
In January, a group of Chinese scientists led by Shi Zhengli, from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, found that Sars-CoV-2 shared 96 per cent of its whole-genome identity with BatCoV RaTG13, another coronavirus found on intermediate horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus affinis), which live in caves in Yunnan province.
In a research paper published last week in Current Biology, the same team found that the coronavirus carried by Malayan pangolins, named Pangolin-CoV, was the second-closest relative of Sars-CoV-2 as the two viruses were 91.02 per cent identical at the whole-genome level.
In early February, researchers from South China Agricultural University said they had found a 99 per cent similarity between the two viruses and declared the Malayan pangolin a “potential intermediate host”. But they later revised their results, lowering the figure to only 90.3 per cent.
Guan Yi, a virologist from the University of Hong Kong, later also said his own research only showed 92.4 per cent similarity.
