CNN –
In the search for the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic, there is a startling new clue.
Collected new evaluation of genetic material from January to March 2020 at the Huanan Seafood Marketplace in Wuhan, China, detected animal DNA in samples currently identified to test constructive for SARS-CoV-two, the coronavirus that causes Covid-19. A important quantity of that DNA seems to belong to animals identified as raccoon dogs, which have been identified to be traded on the marketplace, mentioned Globe Wellness Organization officials, who addressed the new proof at a briefing on Friday.
The hyperlink to raccoon dogs came to light immediately after Chinese researchers shared raw genetic sequences taken from swab samples collected from the marketplace at the get started of the pandemic. The sequences have been uploaded in late January 2023 to the GISAID information sharing website, but have been lately removed.
An international group of researchers spotted them and retrieved them for additional study, WHO officials mentioned on Friday.
The new findings – which have not however been created public – do not resolve the query of how the pandemic started. They do not prove that raccoon dogs have been infected with SARS-CoV-two, nor do they prove that raccoon dogs are the animals that 1st infected humans.
But due to the fact viruses never survive extended in the atmosphere outdoors of their hosts, acquiring so a lot genetic material from the virus mixed with genetic material from raccoon dogs is very suggestive that they could have been carriers, according to the scientists who worked on the evaluation. The evaluation was performed Kristian Andersen, immunologist and microbiologist at Scripps Study Edward Holmes, a virologist from the University of Sydney Michael Woroby, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona. These 3 scientists, who dug into the origins of the pandemic, have been interviewed by journalists from The Atlantic magazine. CNN has reached out to Andersen, Holmes and Worobi for comment.
Particulars about The international evaluation was 1st published on Thursday by The Atlantic.
The new information comes as Republicans in Congress opened investigations into the origins of the pandemic. Preceding research have supplied proof that the virus probably appeared naturally on the marketplace, but could not point to a certain origin. Some US agencies, such as a current assessment by the US Division of Power, say the pandemic is probably the outcome of a leak from a laboratory in Wuhan.
At a press briefing on Friday, WHO Director-Common Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus mentioned the organization was 1st informed of the sequences on Sunday.
“As quickly as we became conscious of this information, we contacted the Chinese CDC and urged them to share it with the WHO and the international scientific neighborhood so that it could be analyzed,” Tedros mentioned.
The WHO also convened its Scientific Advisory Group on the Origins of Emerging Pathogens, identified as SAGO, which is investigating the roots of the pandemic, to talk about the information on Tuesday. The group heard from the Chinese scientists who initially studied the sequences, as effectively as a group of international scientists who looked at them once again.
WHO specialists mentioned at a briefing on Friday that the information is not final. They nevertheless cannot say irrespective of whether the virus leaked from the lab or spread naturally from animals to humans.
“These information do not give a definitive answer to the query of how the pandemic began, but just about every piece of info is crucial to get us closer to that answer,” mentioned Tedros.
What the sequences prove, WHO officials mentioned, is that China has far more information that could relate to the origins of the pandemic that it has not however shared with the rest of the planet.
“This information could and ought to have been shared 3 years ago,” Tedros mentioned. “We continue to get in touch with on China to be transparent in sharing information and to conduct the essential investigations and share the benefits.”
“Understanding how the pandemic started remains a moral and scientific crucial.”
CNN reached out to the Chinese scientists who 1st analyzed and shared the information, but did not hear back.
Chinese researchers, affiliated with the country’s Centers for Illness Manage and Prevention, shared their personal evaluation of samples in 2022. In that pre-press study published final year, they concluded that “no animal host for SARS-CoV2 can be inferred.”
The analysis looked at 923 environmental samples taken from seafood markets and 457 samples taken from animals, and located 63 environmental samples tested constructive for the virus that causes Covid-19. Most have been taken from the west finish of the marketplace. None of the animal samples, which have been taken from refrigerated and frozen items for sale, and from reside stray animals roaming the marketplace, have been constructive, the Chinese authors wrote in 2022.
When they looked at the unique kinds of DNA represented in the environmental samples, the Chinese authors only saw a connection to humans, but not to other animals.
When an international group of researchers lately When they re-examined the genetic material in the samples – which have been swept up on and about marketplace stalls – working with an sophisticated genetic strategy referred to as metagenomics, the scientists mentioned they have been shocked to uncover a important quantity of DNA belonging to raccoon dogs, a compact animal connected to foxes. Raccoon dogs can be infected with the virus that causes Covid-19 and have been higher on the list of suspected host animals for the virus.
“What they located was molecular proof that animals have been sold at that marketplace.” It was suspected, but they located molecular proof for it. And also that some of the animals that have been there have been susceptible to SARS-CoV2 infection, and some of these animals integrated raccoon dogs,” mentioned Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead for Covid-19, at a briefing on Friday.
“This does not transform our method to studying the origin of Covid-19. It just tells us that there is far more information and that information wants to be shared completely,” she mentioned.
Van Kerkhove mentioned that till the international scientific neighborhood is in a position to overview far more proof, “all hypotheses stay on the table.”
Some specialists located the new proof compelling, if not totally conclusive, about the market’s origins.
“The information point even far more to a marketplace origin,” mentioned Andersen, a Scripps Study evolutionary biologist who attended the WHO meeting and is one particular of the scientists analyzing the new information, he told Science magazine.
The claims created about the new information promptly sparked debate in the scientific neighborhood.
Francois Ballou, director of the Institute of Genetics at University College London, mentioned the truth that the new evaluation had not however been created public for scientists to scrutinize, but had come to light in news reports, warranted caution.
“Such articles actually never support due to the fact they only additional polarize the debate,” Ballouk posted in a thread on Twitter. “These convinced of a zoonotic origin will study it as final proof for their conviction, and these convinced it was a laboratory leak will interpret the weakness of the proof as an try at a cover-up.”
Other specialists, who have been not involved in the evaluation, mentioned the information could be important to displaying the virus has a all-natural origin.
Felicia Goodrum is an immunobiologist at the University of Arizona who lately published a overview of all the out there information for a variety of theories about the origin of the pandemic.
Goodrum says the strongest proof for all-natural spillover would be the isolation of the virus that causes Covid-19 from an animal that was present on the marketplace in 2019.
“Clearly that is not possible, due to the fact we cannot go any additional back in time than we can by means of sequencing, and no animals have been present at the time the sequences could have been collected.” To me, this is the subsequent finest point,” Goodrum mentioned in an e-mail to CNN.
At a WHO briefing, Van Kerkhove mentioned Chinese CDC researchers uploaded the sequences to GISAID as they updated their original analysis. She mentioned their 1st paper is in the course of action of getting updated and resubmitted for publication.
“GISAID told us that the Chinese CDC information is getting updated and expanded,” she mentioned.
Van Kerkhove mentioned on Friday that the WHO would like to be in a position to trace the supply of exactly where the animals came from. Have been they wild? Have been they bred?
For the duration of the investigation into the origin of the pandemic, WHO mentioned has repeatedly asked China for research to trace animals back to their farms of origin. She mentioned the WHO also requested blood tests from individuals who worked at the marketplace, as effectively as tests on animals that could have come from farms.
“Share information,” Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s Wellness Emergencies Programme, mentioned on Friday to scientists about the planet who may possibly have relevant info. “Let science do the function and we’ll get the answers.”