Pangolin identified as potential link for coronavirus spread
This file photo taken on July 22, 2019 shows a Formosan pangolin at the Taipei Zoo in Taiwan. The endangered pangolin may be the link that facilitated the spread of the novel coronavirus across China, Chinese scientists said on February 7, 2020. PHOTO | SAM YEH | AFP
Researchers have long suspected that the virus, which has now killed more than 630 people and infected some 31,000, was passed from an animal to a human at a market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.
The new virus is believed to have originated in bats, but researchers have suggested there could have been an "intermediate host" in the transmission to humans.
The pangolin is considered the most trafficked animal on the planet and more than one million have been snatched from Asian and African forests in the past decade.
Beijing,
The endangered pangolin may be the link that facilitated the spread of the novel coronavirus across China, Chinese scientists said Friday.
