Quote:
Originally Posted by Laszlo
. Can domestic animals carry a coronavirus? I have no idea. But that’s kind of scary nonetheless. If true.
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The corona virus comes from bats, apparently.
https://www.businessinsider.com/wuha...-humans-2020-1
Experts think bats are the source of the Wuhan coronavirus. At least 4 pandemics have originated in these animals.
The coronavirus spreading in China and the SARS outbreak of 2003 have two things in common: Both are from the coronavirus family and both were likely passed from animals to humans in a wet market.
Coronaviruses are zoonotic diseases, meaning they spread to people from animals. Because wet markets put people and live and dead animals — dogs, chickens, pigs, civets, and more — in close contact, it can be easy for a virus to make an interspecies jump.
"Poorly regulated live-animal markets mixed with illegal wildlife trade offer a unique opportunity for viruses to spill over from wildlife hosts into the human population," the Wildlife Conservation Society said in a statement.
In the case of SARS and this coronavirus outbreak, bats were the original hosts. They then infected other animals via their poop or saliva, and the unwitting intermediaries transmitted the virus to humans.
"Bats and birds are considered reservoir species for viruses with pandemic potential," Bart Haagmans, a virologist at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, Netherlands, told Business Insider.
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