Chinese researchers have published an eagerly awaited analysis of the data collected from the Wuhan market in China, which has been at the centre of controversy regarding the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic. The researchers found genetic material from wild animals in the swabs taken from the market taken in January 2020, which tested positive for SARS-CoV-2.
“…but the latest findings still fall short of providing definitive proof that SARS-CoV-2 originated from an animal-to-human spillover event,” the researchers at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) believed in a report published in the journal Nature on Wednesday.
There have been two widely debated theories globally about the origins of Covid-19 over whether the pandemic had a natural origin or it arose from a laboratory leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The published paper is among the latest analysis of the market samples, and the first to be peer-reviewed.
The Chinese team was led by George Gao, former China CDC director, who said their study does not rule out that humans may have introduced the virus to the market. “While the study confirmed the existence of raccoon dogs and other animals susceptible to the virus at the market, the samples cannot prove that the animals were infected. Furthermore, even if the animals were infected, our study does not rule out that human-to-animal transmission occurred,” he said.
The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market has been linked to Covid-19 origins because some of the earliest cases were detected here. The animals sold in the market are known hosts for sarbecoviruses, which are respiratory viruses including SARS-CoV-2, the journal reported. This suggests that “a viral spillover from these animals" could have resulted in the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists said lending weight to the natural origins theory over the lab leak one.
Findings from the samples provide useful information about what animals were at the market but cases from early December or November of 2019, or earlier will be more conclusive to learn about the exact origins of the SARS-CoV-2, evolutionary virologist Jesse Bloom at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, United States noted, speaking about the publication.
On the role of the Wuhan market, David Relman, a microbiologist at Stanford University in California, agreed with the study that the market might have a site for an early “superspreader” event but “it’s just as possible that humans brought the virus into the market, as animals might have.”
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