Infectious virus that can spread to humans are rampant throughout Chinese pelt farms , a novel study suggests . Researchers found over 100 viruses in mink , Numida meleagris fuzz , and muskrat carcass . The squad discourage that fur farms are a hub for infective diseases .
Since theCOVID-19pandemic was link to live brute sold at markets in China , scientist have been track how zoonotic viruses – which can jump between beast and humans – spread in these preferences . An international team of researchers used a technique ring metagenomic sequence , a type of psychoanalysis that take care at all deoxyribonucleic acid and RNA in a sample . The team study lung and intestine tissue from 461 animals . All die of infectious disease . The great absolute majority – 412 – died in pelt farms , while an extra 49 died in the angry or in wildlife sanctuaries . well-nigh 30 metal money were studied .
The sample contained a trove of virus , identifying 125 species in total , including coronaviruses , the same group as thepandemicvirus SARS - CoV-2 ; flu A , and paramyxoviruses , which make measles and epidemic parotitis . The team found 36 computer virus specie unexampled to science and 39 that posed a risk of jumping between species , including 11 that had previously taint man .
“ It is interesting that we see this diverseness of known and potential zoonotic disease found in and transmitted between so many different types of animals and over such large geographic areas , ” say joint author John Pettersson , an associate professor at Uppsala University , in astatement .
mink coat and racoon domestic dog – an Asian specie that is more closely pertain to foxes than to North American racoon – harbored the most gamy - risk viruses .
The squad highlighted a particular coronavirus found in two mink coat that died on a single farm . This virus resembles the species that cause the viral respiratory contagion Middle East respiratory syndrome ( MERS ) in world . The computer virus originates in bats , and the researchers wrote that this “ illustrates a cross - order transmission event from wildlife to farmed fur animals that are in close contact lens with human race . ” Fur farms should be dependent to greater surveillance to track the spread of possible infective disease irruption more effectively , wrote the researcher . Fur farms , frequently criticized for their poor animal upbeat standards , have been banned or are being phased out in over 20 European countries .
The study was published inNature .
