Despite the geographical distance, the coronaviruses identified in the frozen tissues of two bats captured in Cambodia in 2010 are cousins of SarsCoV2: this is demonstrated by the sequencing of their genome, similar for 92.6% to that of the virus responsible for Covid-19. The study, published in Nature Communications by an international team led by the Pasteur Institute in Paris, once again reopens the debate on the origin of the pandemic by reinforcing the hypothesis of species jumping from bats, and highlights the need to monitor wildlife not only in China, but throughout Southeast Asia, to prevent future threats.
The two ‘related’ viruses, named RshSTT182 and RshSTT200, have a genome that is very similar to SarsCoV2, except for the part that encodes the portion of the Spike protein called the ‘N-terminal domain’ (Ntd). “In different parts of the genome, RshSTT182 and RshSTT200 are genetically closer to SarsCoV2 than any other closely related virus discovered so far,” the researchers write in the study.
The viruses were found in the frozen tissues of two Shamel horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus shameli), suggesting that SarsCoV2 ‘relatives’ could circulate through various Rhinolophus species. The knowledge of their geographical distribution is however limited by the lack of sampling in South East Asia, at least in the Greater Mekong subregion which includes Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, in addition to the Chinese provinces of Yunnan and Guanxi. In this area, in addition to bats, there are pangolins, cats, civets and weasels which are susceptible to SarsCov2 and could represent the intermediate host for transmission to humans.
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Source From: Ansa
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