New COVID-19 Data Links Wuhan Market to Possible Coronavirus Origins

Newly released data has provided critical insight into the start of the COVID-19 pandemic
Scientists say the coronavirus data comprised new virus sequences and additional genomic data
Findings add to the evidence that market-traded animals may have spread the coronavirus to humans.

According to a new analysis by an international team of researchers, swabs collected from stalls and equipment at the Huanan Market in Wuhan, China, that tested positive for evidence of the virus that causes COVID-19 also included traces of DNA from animals known to be vulnerable to infection.

In the investigation published online on Tuesday, the researchers assert that their findings add to evidence that lives animals traded at the market may have transmitted the coronavirus to people, indicating a natural genesis for the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 Data Points to Infected Animals in Wuhan

Early in 2020, scientists linked with China's Centers for Disease Control took the swabs, just after China shut down its market, an early center for COVID-19 infections.

No one had seen the raw data from these tests until Chinese researchers submitted information about their sample to the genetic data-sharing portal GISAID. An international collaboration of scientists investigating the pandemic's origins discovered and downloaded the material in early March for additional analysis, as per CNN.

This week, several media outlets summarized the findings of the new study, and World Health Organization officials discussed them in a news briefing. The report was made public on Tuesday and released online as a preprint before peer review.

The analysis included raccoon dogs and red foxes, rabbits, cats, and dogs. Also detected was genetic material from Amur hedgehogs, Malayan porcupines, hoary bamboo rats, Himalayan marmots, masked palm civets, Siberian weasels, and hog badgers.

In addition to coronavirus genetic signatures, the cart swab revealed over 4,500 lengthy fragments of raccoon dog genetic material, according to the report. It had no human impact, as per NY Times.

According to the findings, certain COVID-positive swabs retrieved from different market products and surfaces had more animal genetic material than human genetic material. The discovery of genetic footprints from animals in the same location as viral DNA does not show that the animals were infected.

Infected Animals Does Not Assure Transmission of Virus to Humans

But, according to several experts who evaluated the research, the predominance of genetic material from animals - particularly raccoon dogs - revealed that species known to be able to transmit the coronavirus were harboring illnesses in late 2019.

They argued that this scenario was compatible with the virus spreading from market animals to humans and sparking the pandemic, similar to the conditions that led to the first SARS outbreak in China twenty years earlier.

The swabs may provide further information regarding the virus's origin in the samples. According to the analysis, there was evidence of certain genes that suggested the material originated from the upper respiratory system of a raccoon dog.

Even if an animal were infected, it would not be certain that it transmitted the virus to humans. A virus-infected individual might have infected a market animal.

Michael Worobey of the University of Arizona, Kristian Andersen of Scripps Research in La Jolla, California, and Florence Débarre of the Sorbonne University in Paris were among the researchers who accessed the data.

The research also provided further information about other animals present at the Wuhan market and demonstrated that certain COVID-positive environmental samples had more animal genetic material than human genetic material, indicating that the animals were infected.

Last week, WHO authorities stated that the leaked material was not definitive but did provide a new lead in the inquiry into the virus's origins. They said it should have been disclosed immediately, according to Sky News.