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On September 4, 2003, the US based
Science journal published the paper authored by the
researchers of Hong Kong University and Shenzhen
Municipal Disease Control and Prevention Center on SARS
viruses origin. Researchers revealed in the paper that they
have separated SARS viruses from the body of Faguma larvata.
The full genome sequencing and comparative analysis has
shown that the SARS viruses discovered in Paguma larvata
bear 99.8% of the homogeneity with human SARS viruses. The
finding suggests that SARS viruses may originate from
animals' and make human beings infected through the
propagation between different species.
In
addition to Paguma larvata, researchers have spotted the
SARS viruses antibody in Nyctereutes procyonoides and
ferretbadger. All these animals were collected from a market
in Shenzhen. In the meanwhile, researchers had the blood
samples collected from 20 wild animal dealers and 15 animal
butchers tested and found SARS viruses antibody in 8 wild
animal dealers and 3 animal butchers, although these people
had not shown any SARS symptoms in the last 6
months.
Researchers pointed out that the wild
animal fair may become a place transmitting animal based
SARS viruses to new hosts including human beings. However,
it remains unclear if Paguma larvata is the origin of SARS
viruses. There is the possibility that Paguma larvata got
the SARS viruses from other unknown animals who could
possibly be the real origin of SARS
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