no propaganda please Loc: moon orbiting the third rock from the sun

C****av***ses Similar to The C****-** One Have Just Been Found in Pangolins
MIKE MCRAE
27 MARCH 2020

A search for the 'missing link' in the chain of the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 has uncovered two close cousins of the new c****av***s in shipments of pangolins being smuggled into China.

It's important to note that the discovery by researchers from across Hong Kong and China falls well short of identifying these precious mammals as the source of the current p******c. However, the similarity of the strains does suggest the nation's pangolin market is a time bomb that needs to be defused.

Ever since the nexus for the outbreak of C****-** was traced back to a wet market in Hubei province, the search has been on to determine the v***s's heritage. Initial studies of SARS-CoV-2's genome suggest it's highly possible that the v***s emerged in a colony of horseshoe bats in Yunnan, a province that borders the south-east Asian country of Myanmar.

But if that is the case, it's hard to imagine how a bat became a source of infection in a densely populated city more than 1,000 kilometres to the north of its colony.

Granted, stalls in these Chinese wet markets sell a wide variety of live animals for food and traditional medicine, many of them sourced from Asia's tropics. Whether bats of any kind might have been present isn't clear, since the market was cleared long before the first indications of an outbreak were known.

Unlike horseshoe bats, though, the pangolin is almost guaranteed to have been on sale there.

The illicit sale of the endangered mammal - prized as a delicacy and a health tonic - is an 'open secret' throughout much of the nation, and a good place to start hunting for an intermediate host of the zoonotic v***s currently wreaking havoc across the globe.

Frozen tissues from 18 Malayan pangolins (Manis javanica) were obtained from anti-smuggling operations carried out by Guangxi Customs during 2017 and early 2018.

C****av***s RNA was found in six of the 43 organ samples, linking the v***s with five individual animals. Techniques for reading and filling in missing sequences soon provided the team with half a dozen detailed genomes of the pangolin's strains of the v***s.

None were dead ringers for SARS-CoV-2, but there were a number of overlapping sequences that suggest these v***ses were fairly closely related.

A second hunt through another batch of pangolin tissues taken from an operation later in 2018 followed, based on the newly acquired genomes. This analysis revealed a further three positive results out of 12 animals.

In addition to these specimens from the Guangxi operation, the team analysed pangolin scales, skin swabs, and unspecified tissues from a separate customs centre in Guangzhou, picked up in early 2019.

Taken together, the mix of newly sequenced c****av***s genomes are all 85.5 to 92.4 percent similar to SARS-CoV-2, and represent two lines of related v***s. One of those lines even has a 'haircut' that resembles that of the C****-** v***s, with remarkably similar receptor-binding spikes jutting from their surfaces.

The results might not be the smoking gun we're hoping for, as the search for the connection between the c****av***s's reservoir and the first humans to be infected continues.

Still, it's a wake-up call we desperately need. All those animals seized by customs were destined for live animal markets somewhere in China.

As impossible as it is to predict whether those particular lines of c****av***s could have made a leap into the human population, the current p******c emerged from just such a branch of that family tree.

The sale of pangolins in China is already far from legal, but without the political will to provide the resources necessary to enforce the law, their sale will almost certainly continue to flourish, in spite of recent widespread bans of the sale and distribution of wild meats.

A global p******c is a tragic incentive to act. But with mounting evidence that pangolins play a strong role in the ecology of such a potential threat, perhaps it's the push China needs to finally get a handle on its illegal animal trade.

This research was published in Nature.

The Chinese have allowed this ENDANGERED SPECIES to be openly sold in street markets even though there is a worldwide ban on k*****g this rare animal. Perhaps if they had enforced the rules, this world wide epidemic would not have happened.

MR Mister Loc: Washington DC

Only ignorant people will EAT something like a pangolin which are now endangered.
Seems the yellow race will eat anything.

Canuckus Deploracus Loc: North of the wall

It's not an open secret... Most Chinese have never heard of a Pangolin...

And a report finding the v***s in Pangolins came out more than a month ago... Pangolins being sold in the W***n market... How is this a new finding?

On the brightside, sale of all wild animals has been banned... (And hopefully enforced)...

A number of cities have also banned the sale of dog for consumption... Though O doubt that will catch on in the North or in the Guangxi Autonomous region...

MR Mister Loc: Washington DC

There are videos taken in the W***n market showing a Pangolin in a cage.

no propaganda please Loc: moon orbiting the third rock from the sun

There are several such photos and apparently the Chinese government does not care that a world wide endangered species is being sold for food or perhaps for medicinal purposes. I get the feeling that in a closed society as all c*******t societies are, the laws are made to be broken if it suits the government. I remember stories of the Mafia in Chicago making the rules and the Chicago politicians being fine with that as long as they got their kickback. Perhaps the Chinese government is just like that too.

As far as the Chinese eating dogs, considering the population of stray dogs in cities in China, according to several articles I have read in dog magazines, the Chinese should eat more stray dogs. Unfortunately what happens is that several "rescue" groups collect the dogs by the thousands and send them to the US claiming they will make great pets and it will save the animals lives. All that happens is that thousands of untamable dogs are spreading disease while they sit in "rescue groups" shelters before having to be put to sleep because they are untamable. Then the groups demand limits on how many dogs people can have and, in some cities, mandate that all dogs be spayed or neutered to cut down on the unwanted dog population. Pathetic isn't it?

Canuckus Deploracus Loc: North of the wall

I just said that... Did you read my response?

Canuckus Deploracus Loc: North of the wall

Very similar...

Plenty of officials take kickbacks...

Sew_What

...that's why they switched to bat....

vernon

There are two sides to every story.The plantation workers make 47 dollars a month.They make 10times that
much poaching I can see why they steal the ugly things. I think there would be a lot of new poachers if we were living under these conditions .

newbear Loc: New York City

Good to know, Han-uckus..