Viruses similar to SARS-CoV-2 have been circulating for decades, including in Cambodia

[Gert van der Hoek]

Febr 10, 2021

If the SARS-CoV-2 group originated in Southeast Asia, it could explain why humans in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam appear to be much less affected.

In November and December 2010, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and Cambodian authorities invited researchers from the Mus?um National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris to explore several sites in northern Cambodia. The goal was to study the biodiversity of bats near the Temple of Preah Vihear, and a large number of bats species were caught during this survey, including eight types of horseshoe bat (genus Rhinolophus).

They are of great interest for virologists, as they are the reservoir of all Sarbecoviruses, the group of coronaviruses that includes SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2, respectively responsible for the SARS epidemic in 2002-2004 and the current Covid-19 pandemic.

In 2020, 10 years after the expedition, the samples stored in a freezer at -80?C were taken out and tested by the Institut Pasteur of Cambodia to look for Sarbecoviruses.

A PCR test showed two positive results and a full sequencing of their genome started. Two variants of a virus close to SARS-CoV-2 were discovered in two bats of the species Rhinolophus shameli we captured in 2010 in a cave in the province of Steung Treng.

The Covid-19 crisis taught the world that keeping immense numbers of small carnivores in captivity is a major health risk: viruses can spread and evolve rapidly in breeding facilities, potentially producing more contaminating or more dangerous variants. As pangolins and small carnivore species were frequently stored and sold together in wet markets, a “snowballing effect” due to interspecies viral transmission could be the last step in starting the human Covid-19 pandemic.

 

[Gert van der Hoek]

bioRxiv - A novel SARS-CoV-2 related coronavirus in bats from Cambodia

 

[Gert van der Hoek]

Coronavirus: Bat scientists find new evidence

Febr 10 2021

Scientists say coronaviruses related to Sars-CoV-2 may be circulating in bats across many parts of Asia.

They have discovered a virus that is a close match to the virus that causes Covid-19 in bats at a wildlife sanctuary in eastern Thailand.

And they predict that similar coronaviruses may be present in bats across many Asian nations and regions.

The discovery extends the area in which related viruses have been found to a distance of 4,800km (2,983 miles).

And it gives clues to how Covid-19 might have emerged.

The researchers said sampling was limited, but they were confident that coronaviruses "with a high degree of genetic relatedness to Sars-CoV-2 are widely present in bats across many nations and regions in Asia".

The area includes Japan, China and Thailand, the researchers said in a report published in Nature Communications.

• Covid: Why bats are not to blame, say scientists
• The race to find the source of coronavirus in wildlife
• Cracking the secrets of how bats survive coronaviruses

Past studies have suggested that Sars-CoV-2 emerged in an animal, most likely a bat, before spreading to humans.

The precise origins of the virus are unknown and have been investigated by a team commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO).

• WHO probe team in China exits Wuhan quarantine.

In the latest research, a team lead by Lin-Fa Wang of the University of Singapore detected a close relative of Sars-CoV-2 in horseshoe bats kept in an artificial cave at a wildlife sanctuary in Thailand.

The virus, named RacCS203, is a close match to the genetic code of Sars-CoV-2 (with 91.5% similarity in their genomes).

It is also closely related to another coronavirus - called RmYN02 - which is found in bats in Yunnan, China (with 93.6% similarity to the genome of Sars-CoV-2).

"We need to do more surveillance in animals," said Prof Wang. "In order to find the true origin, the surveillance work needs to go beyond the border of China."

 

[bertrand789]

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0237129

 

[bertrand789]

mais s'applique ?galement aux animaux n?s et ?lev?s dans des ?tablissements d'?levage tels que le rat bambou chinois ( Rhizomys sinensis )

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320720309952

 

[bertrand789]

Le rat de bambou a ?galement ?t? soup?onn? par Zhong Nanshan, le chef du groupe d'experts de haut niveau de la Commission nationale de la sant? de Chine , comme l'une des sources de la nouvelle pneumonie ? coronavirus , mais il n'y a aucune preuve claire pour le prouver

https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/中华竹鼠

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhong_Nanshan

donc:

Zhong Nanshan

https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/钟南山

 

[bertrand789]

Le dentifrice au sel de bambou est l'un des produits les plus connus. On dit qu'il a des propri?t?s anti-inflammatoires et antibact?riennes, anti-allergiques et anti-mites, maintient le collag?ne des gencives et pr?vient la d?g?n?rescence des gencives et les maladies parodontales .

https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/竹

un traitement de la covid ?



L? ou il y a des bambous , il y a des rhizomys . Le dossier coronavirus et rhizomys est un vieux dossier

• Accepted 12 April 2007.
• https://jvi.asm.org/content/81/13/6920

mais il y a un plus grand tabou, la sensibilit? d'un autre habitant des bambouseraies

https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/大熊猫

comme il y en a en bien des endroits on devrait pouvoir savoir, non ?