Wuhan Coronavirus Likely To Have Transmitted To People From Snakes And Bats In Wuhan Food Market: Report

The deadly coronavirus that has so fair claimed 17 lives in Wuhan, China, may have been transmitted to people from snakes, according to a genetic analysis, New Scientist reported.

The snakes may have been infected with the virus from bats in a food market in which both species were sold.

The outbreak of coronavirus has been linked to a fish market at Wuhan, the capital of China’s central Hubei province. The Wuhan South China Seafood City market, which also sells chickens, bats, marmots and other animals, has been closed since 1 January. In Chinese food tradition, even roaches, rats, dogs, monkeys are not shunned.

Battling to spread the infection, Chinese authorities moved to place the city of Wuhan under complete quarantine in an attempt to slow the outbreak of a new coronavirus that originated in the city.

Trains and flights to Wuhan have been temporarily halted. Restriction have been placed on public transportation within the city. The virus has so far infected over 500 people in the city.

According to the report in New Scientist, a team of reachers led by Wei Ji a at Peking University in China compared the genomes of five samples of the new virus with 217 similar viruses collected from a range of species. According to their conclusion, the new virus looks similar to those found in bats, but is most like viruses seen in snakes.

The report quoted Peter Rabinowitz at the University of Washington in Seattle as saying that the new virus may have formed as a result of viruses from bats and snakes combining, which can happen when two species of animal are kept in close quarters as can happen in food markets.