TASS, June 10. large-Scale “census” of the virus among wild animals, which are sold in the markets of Vietnam, showed that more than a third of normal rats and each sixteenth bamboo rat were carriers of various strains of coronaviruses.
These animals can become the source of these epidemics, scientists write in the article, which was published in the electronic scientific library bioRxiv.
“We found that as the movement in the supply chain, from capture and before reaching the restaurants, the proportion of infected animals is rapidly growing. To minimize the risk of transmission of these viruses to man, and their possible recombination, we recommend to limit the catch, sale and transportation of wild animals,” the scientists write.
Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent COVID-19, can penetrate the human body, but also in many other mammals. As shown by the recent experiments of biologists and observations of veterinarians, among these animals macaque-rhesus, ferrets and cats. The infection affects them almost as much as in person.
the Initial source of the disease, as now suggested by the epidemiologists was a Chinese podkovonos bats.
the role of this “intermediate” until recently claimed insectivorous mammals pangolins, recently, however, biologists have questioned this, comparing the genome of SARS-CoV-2 and coronaviruses that affect these animals. Therefore, zoologists and animal infections continue to search for the ancestor of the epidemic coronavirus infection.
Zoologists from the USA, Austria and Vietnam under the leadership of Amanda fine, held the first census among the wild animals that you can buy in the markets of Vietnam.
So the people of Vietnam not only often catch these wild animals but breed them on farms. From there they go to big markets where they are purchased by suppliers, restaurants, as well as lovers of such meat.
to check if this could help the virus to spread, scientists collected samples of blood and excreta of rodents and bats in areas 70 such markets and dozens of farms. As a result, they were more than two thousand such samples from more than thousands of rodents and three hundred bats.
Analysis of the samples showed that in the blood of these animals and their secretions were traces of six different types of coronaviruses.
“Our study shows that different strains of coronavirus were present at all 24 meat markets that sold live rodents. In addition, viruses were found on 60% of farms where they grow these animals, and 94% of the companies that produce fertilizer from excreta of bats,” write the FEIN and her colleagues.
most Often, these viruses were found among the normal rats. The��results show that about one-third of a rodent was a carrier of at least one coronavirus, and the proportion of infected individuals grew as their movements through the trade chain. For example, when catching the viruses found in about 20% of rats AK when entering the restaurant the infected were already approximately half of the animals.
Among them, the proportion of infected individuals ranged from 6% for rodents and about 70% for bats. It is more than that indicated previous observations in other East Asian countries. ??This discovery, as scientists hope, will compel the government of Vietnam and other countries in the region to take measures, which will not allow to appear new epidemics, like COVID-19.
it Should be added that article the scientists and reviewed by independent experts and editors of scientific journals, as it usually happens in such cases. Therefore, the conclusions from it and similar articles should be treated with caution.
