Coronavirus detected in two species of bats: ICMR

NEW DELHI: ICMR researchers have detected coronavirus in two species of bat.

“To assess the presence of CoVs in bats, we performed identification and characterisation of bat CoV (BtCoV) in P. medius and Rousettus species from representative states in India collected during 2018 and 2019,” according to a paper published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research on April 13.

A significant Lancet study published a few months ago had once again pointed fingers towards the infamous bats.

In the study, Professor Guizhen Wu of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said that the data they had so far was consistent with the virus being initially hosted by bats.

“A new genetic analysis of 10 genome sequences of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) from nine patients in Wuhan, China finds that the virus is most closely related to two bat-derived SARS-like coronaviruses,” the authors wrote.

The 2019-nCoV is sufficiently divergent from SARS-CoV to be considered a new human-infecting carrier.

“Although our analysis suggests that bats might be the original host of this virus, an animal sold at the seafood market in Wuhan might represent an intermediate host facilitating the emergence of the virus in humans,” said the authors from National Key Research and Development Program of China, National Major Project for Control and Prevention of Infectious Disease in China, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shandong First Medical University.

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