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Chinese researchers briefly put data into a publicly available database. The analysis, which has not yet been independently verified, puts raccoon dogs marketed in Wuhan, China, in play as potential carriers of the coronavirus.

“The preliminary result strongly supports my assumption that it comes from raccoon dogs or other carnivores (meat eaters) such as civets, which I have voiced since the start of the pandemic.”Berlin virologist Christian Drosten told the German news agency (dpa) on Friday.

According to a report in The Atlantic magazine, scientists had stumbled upon previously unknown Chinese data from the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, which has been linked to the first corona outbreak. The genetic sequences were obtained from smears taken at and near market stalls at the start of the pandemic. A few days ago, researchers at China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) added them to the freely accessible “Gisaid” genome database, where they were almost accidentally discovered and analyzed by scientists in Europe, North America and Australia.

According to “The Atlantic,” a review led by virus experts Kristian Andersen, Edward Holmes and Michael Worobey showed that several market samples that tested positive for Sars-CoV-2 also contained animal genetic material — often from raccoon dogs, a common species on fur farms fox relatives were kept. According to the report, the scientists conclude, among other things, from the way the sample was taken that a raccoon dog infected with the coronavirus could have been in the affected areas.

criticism from the WHO

“These are preliminary evaluations of Chinese raw data. An extensive investigation by the scientists who are actually involved in the research will certainly follow soon,’ explains Drosten.

The new findings are likely to rekindle the debate over the origins of the coronavirus. There’s also the theory of a lab glitch as a possible origin.

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Friday: “These data do not give us a definitive answer on how the pandemic started, but any information is important to get closer to that answer. “

The WHO chief criticized China’s information policy:

data erased

The material that was temporarily available on “Gisaid” has since been removed by China – why, you have to ask the Chinese GGD, said corona expert Maria van Kerkhove in Geneva. According to them, the data proves that raccoon dogs were traded in the market. This had been previously assumed, but never confirmed. Keep an open mind about where the animals come from, be it farm animals or wild ones. It should also be emphasized that the virus has not been detected in an animal itself.

“It is a bit surprising that this data has only now been collected”Fabian Leendertz of the Helmholtz Institute for One Health in Greifswald told the dpa. Testing environmental samples for the genetic makeup of animals in the area in question is actually a routine procedure. “What’s missing now is looking further back — are there any infected intermediate hosts? Where did the raccoon dogs (or other susceptible animals traded there) possibly get the virus from?” (saw/sda/dpa)