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New Data Links Pandemic’s Origins to Raccoon Dogs at Wuhan Market

(New York Times) - Truncated

An international team of virus experts said on Thursday that they had found genetic data from a market in Wuhan, China, linking the coronavirus with raccoon dogs for sale there, adding evidence to the case that the worst pandemic in a century could have been ignited by an infected animal that was being dealt through the illegal wildlife trade.

The genetic data was drawn from swabs taken from in and around the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market starting in January 2020, shortly after the Chinese authorities had shut down the market because of suspicions that it was linked to the outbreak of a new virus. By then, the animals had been cleared out, but researchers swabbed walls, floors, metal cages and carts often used for transporting animal cages.

In samples that came back positive for the coronavirus, the international research team found genetic material belonging to animals, including large amounts that were a match for the raccoon dog, three scientists involved in the analysis said.

The jumbling together of genetic material from the virus and the animal does not prove that a raccoon dog itself was infected. And even if a raccoon dog had been infected, it would not be clear that the animal had spread the virus to people. Another animal could have passed the virus to people, or someone infected with the virus could have spread the virus to a raccoon dog.

But the analysis did establish that raccoon dogs — fluffy animals that are related to foxes and are known to be able to transmit the coronavirus — deposited genetic signatures in the same place where genetic material from the virus was left, the three scientists said. That evidence, they said, was consistent with a scenario in which the virus had spilled into humans from a wild animal.

Full story - https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/16/science/covid-wuhan-market-raccoon-dogs-lab-leak.html
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pdqsailor1 · 61-69, M
The problem is they will eat ... anything...
Ynotisay · M
@pdqsailor1 You're right. I think it's part cultural and part necessity.
pdqsailor1 · 61-69, M
@Ynotisay In the bible they speak of which domesticated animals are suitable for food - the details written in the book of Leviticus. and there are rules and standards that some of us have followed for thousands of years.. We raise chickens, ducks geese, cows, sheep, goats we speak of the standards for sea food as to what foods are permitted and which are not permitted... (others raise other animals) .. and the Chinese to a large extent do this as well but far from exclusively so to our chagrin they eat cat, dog, and any and every manner of other thing... and something like this happens and their alternate path.. creates a pandemic for which they accept zero responsibility... in fact they take umbrage at the mere suggestion that they are responsible for the ruin caused.. When the rules were written - black on white one firm coined a phrase to describe this standard... "we answer to a higher authority"... and those that adhere to this standard do not create pandemics..