Studies link COVID-19 to wildlife sales at Chinese market, find other scenarios extremely unlikely

Studies link COVID-19 to wildlife sales at Chinese market, find other scenarios extremely unlikelyAnalyses based on locations and viral sequencing of early cases indicate the COVID-19 pandemic started in Wuhan ' s HuananSeafood Wholesale Market, with two separate jumps from animals to humans. Daniel Stolte Tuesday University Communicationsshutterstock_1677993463_web.jpg A worker in protective clothing disinfects surfaces in a market where meat is sold as a prevention against COVID-19.HealthScience and TechnologyCollege of ScienceCOVID-19ExpertsExplorationGrand ChallengesResearch Media contact(s)Daniel Stolte Science Writer, University Communicationsstolte@arizona.edu520-626-4402 Researcher contact(s)Michael Worobey Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biologyworobey@email.arizona.eduAn international team of researchers has confirmed that live animals sold at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China, were the likely source of the COVID-19 pandemic that has claimed 6.4 million lives since it began nearly three years ago.Led by University of Arizona virus evolution expertMichael Worobey, researchers traced the start of the pandemic to the market in Wuhan, where foxes, raccoon dogs and other live mammals susceptible to the virus were sold immediately before the pandemic began. Their findings were published Tuesday in two papers in the journal Science, after being previously released in preprint versions in February.The publications, which have since gone ...
Source: The University of Arizona: Health - Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Source Type: research