Scientists say bats in Thailand could spread other coronaviruses related to Sars-CoV-2, or Covid-19, joining what is thought to be many other bats doing the same thing across Asia. The revelation comes after scientists found bats at a wildlife sanctuary in eastern Thailand to feature a virus that closely matches that of the virus that causes Covid-19.
The team that discovered the bats featuring the virus in Thailand is led by Lin-Fa Wang of Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore. The virus found is named RacCS203, and is over 91% similar to the Covid-19 virus in terms of genomes.
It is also closely related to another coronavirus, RmYN02, which is found in bats in Yunnan, China as its genomes display a 93.6% match to Covid-19.
“We need to do more surveillance in animals. In order to find the true origin, the surveillance work needs to go beyond the border of China.”
One big concern is…
