Raccoon dog

Analysis of gene sequences by international team finds Covid-positive samples rich in raccoon dog DNA.

The latest genetic data does not prove raccoon dogs or other mammals were infected with Covid and spread it at the market. One theory proposes that the virus emerged in wild animals and spread to humans through contamination at the market. While scientists expect the debate to rumble on, there are questions over why the Chinese team did not release the genetic data earlier. Why the data was later pulled from the Gisaid site is also not clear. Swabs collected from stalls at the Huanan seafood market in the two months after it was shut down on 1 January 2020 were previously found to contain both Covid and human DNA. Traces of DNA belonging to other mammals, including civets, were also present in Covid-positive samples.

Scientists who examined genetic data from samples collected at a Wuhan market said they found suggestions the Covid pandemic originated from animals, ...

In February, the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. The paper did not mention that animal genetic material was found in samples that tested positive for Covid-19, and the authors didn’t upload the raw data until March. Some of the samples with raccoon dog DNA were collected from a stall that tested positive for Covid-19 and was known to be involved in the wildlife trade, Goldstein said. The China CDC scientists who previously analyzed the samples published a paper as a preprint in February. “There’s a good chance that the animals that deposited that DNA also deposited the virus,” said Stephen Goldstein, a virologist at the University of Utah who was involved in analyzing the data. Their analysis was first reported in The Atlantic.

A new analysis of genetic information conducted by an international group of researchers has found evidence to suggest that COVID-19 originated from ...

Tracking down the origins of a virus often takes years, but previous efforts have traced back to animal origins. The organization stated at the time that further information on supply chain of the Huanan market would be needed. These findings, which have not been published, were presented to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens on Tuesday. The data had been submitted by Chinese researchers who collected the genetic sequences from the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, which has been scrutinized as being the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. Department of Energy that COVID-19 originated from a Chinese research lab. The analysis, which is not conclusive, is being led by researchers Kristian Andersen, Edward Holmes and Michael Worobey.

The World Health Organization called on China to fully share genetic data that may help discern the origins of Covid-19 after it appeared briefly appeared ...

Data was released briefly, then rescinded. As NPR reported previously, there is already strong evidence pointing to these animals in the Huanan Seafood ...

We do have one analysis where we show essentially that the chance of having this pattern of cases [clustered around the market] is 1 in 10 million [if the market isn't a source of the virus]. He was told, "This is the kind of place that has the ingredients for cross-species transmission of dangerous pathogens." What's more, the caged animals are shown in or near a stall where scientists found SARS-CoV-2 virus on a number of surfaces, including on cages, carts and machines that process animals after they are slaughtered at the market. The data in the 2022 studies paints an incredibly detailed picture of the early days of the pandemic. And even better, in that particular stall, the samples were very animal-y. Virtually all of the findings in the report matched what was in the World Health Organization's report. A concerned customer evidently took these photos and videos of the market on Dec. The team then immediately alerted the WHO about the presence of the data, and the WHO has helped mediate that communication. Specifically, they conclude that the coronavirus most likely jumped from a caged wild animal into people at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, where a huge COVID-19 outbreak began in December 2019. She adds that this information should have been shared years ago: "Any data that exists on the study of the origins of this pandemic need to be made available immediately." These studies have yet to be conducted, and until they are conducted, until we have the data, we aren't able to conclusively say how this pandemic began." "She shared the data with an international team and realized the relevance and importance of the data.

Genetic material collected at a Chinese market near where the first human cases of COVID-19 were identified show raccoon dog DNA comingled with the virus,.

In February, the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Their paper didn't mention that animal genes were found in the samples that tested positive. But others in the U.S. Gao Fu, the former head of the Chinese CDC and lead author of the Chinese paper, didn’t immediately respond to an Associated Press email requesting comment. “There’s a good chance that the animals that deposited that DNA also deposited the virus," said Stephen Goldstein, a virologist at the University of Utah who was involved in analyzing the data. Goldstein and his colleagues say their analysis is the first solid indication that there may have been wildlife infected with the coronavirus at the market. And Tedros has said all hypotheses remain on the table. Mark Woolhouse, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Edinburgh, said it will be crucial to see how the raccoon dogs' genetic sequences match up to what's known about the historic evolution of the COVID-19 virus. Researchers are puzzled as to why data on the samples collected over three years ago wasn’t made public sooner. He was not connected to the new analysis. Their analysis was first reported in The Atlantic. Other experts have not yet verified their analysis, which has yet to appear in a peer-reviewed journal.

Genetic samples from the market were recently uploaded to an international database and then removed after scientists asked China about them.

He said that the team was still analyzing the data and that it had not intended for its analysis to become public before it had released a report. Scientists involved with the analysis said that some of the samples had also contained genetic material from other animals and from humans. Goldstein, too, cautioned that “we don’t have an infected animal, and we can’t prove definitively there was an infected animal at that stall.” Genetic material from the virus is stable enough, he said, that it is not clear when exactly it was deposited at the market. Holmes had visited in 2014](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/21/health/covid-lab-leak-eddie-holmes.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article), scientists involved in the analysis said. Débarre said she had alerted other scientists, including the leaders of a team that had published a set of studies last year pointing to the market as the origin. [Republicans in Congress](https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000008802050/house-covid-origins-hearing.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=styln-coronavirus&variant=show®ion=MAIN_CONTENT_1&block=storyline_top_links_recirc)pushing the theory that a laboratory leak was to blame. Virus experts had been awaiting that raw sequence data from the market since they learned of its existence in the Chinese report from February 2022. [study](https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-1370392/v1) looking at the same market samples in February 2022. The jumbling together of genetic material from the virus and the animal does not prove that a raccoon dog itself was infected. It also suggests that Chinese scientists have given an incomplete account of evidence that could fill in details about how the virus was spreading at the Huanan market. Department of Energy and [hearings](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/08/us/politics/covid-lab-leak-house-hearing.html) led by the new Republican House leadership. That evidence, they said, was consistent with a scenario in which the virus had spilled into humans from a wild animal.

A raccoon dog has been linked to the long-running debate over the origins of the coronavirus after an international team of scientists reported that a ...

Scientists cautioned, though, that their finding does not definitively prove that raccoon dogs were the first source of the virus spreading to humans. A raccoon dog has been linked to the long-running debate over the origins of the

The monogamous, hibernating canids, which are related to foxes, are sold for meat and fur.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals But subsequent research ultimately pointed to bats as the natural reservoir for the virus that causes SARS; raccoon dogs appeared to be intermediate hosts. Covid-19 aside, the animals are known to be vectors for other diseases, including rabies. [Republicans in Congress](https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000008802050/house-covid-origins-hearing.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=styln-coronavirus&variant=show®ion=MAIN_CONTENT_1&block=storyline_top_links_recirc)pushing the theory that a laboratory leak was to blame. Even if raccoon dogs at the market were infected, they might have been an intermediate host, picking up the virus from bats or another species. The findings did not prove that raccoon dogs were infected with the virus or that they had passed it on to humans. They are also sold for their meat in live animal markets. But that does not mean that they are the natural reservoir for the virus. Although they appear svelte in the summer, they pack on the pounds for winter, when their fur also becomes thicker. Raccoon dogs have long been farmed for their fur. Despite their name, raccoon dogs are not close relatives of raccoons. The new data revealed that some of these same swabs also contained substantial genetic material from raccoon dogs.

New molecular evidence pointing to their presence at the Wuhan wet market tied to COVID's early days is either a smoking gun or a red herring, experts say.

All data related to studying the novel virus’s origins “needs to be shared with the international community,” he said. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told Fortune that the scientific community at large still doesn’t have access to the data recently pulled from the international research database by Chinese officials. He says he’s always thought there were multiple spill-overs from animals to humans in the region between October and December 2019. While it’s the first bit of molecular evidence that animals were illegally sold at the wet market, it’s not proof that such animals—or any animals—were infected, she said. “But every piece of data is important in moving us closer to that answer.” Had they been, it wouldn’t necessarily mean they brought the virus to the market. But now we have a pathway to figure it out.” That data been published to GISAID—an international research database that tracks changes in COVID and the flu virus—by officials with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in late January, but was recently taken down, Dr. At the meeting, international scientists who had obtained the data before it was removed and analyzed it presented their findings. They could be the missing link in the chain of transmission from bats, presumably, to people, experts in the zoonotic transmission camp say. But “your level of confidence grows as you put it together.” Michael Ryan, the organization’s executive director of health emergencies, said at a news conference, referencing the puzzle analogy.