Similar viruses with the potential to infect humans could be circulating in the mammals
Viruses from the coronavirus lineage responsible for COVID-19 have been circulating in bats for decades, long before the virus started infecting people last year, a new study suggests.Pangolins or another animal might still have been an intermediate host before the virus made it to humans.
Maciej Boni, an epidemiologist at Penn State, and his colleagues examined the genetic blueprints of the new coronavirus, or SARS-CoV-2, and 67 related viruses. The analysis aimed to uncover the evolutionary history of SARS-CoV-2 and see if the virus had exchanged bits of genetic material with other coronaviruses, a process called recombination, to become the formidable
Based on the evolutionary relationship among the 68 coronaviruses, the researchers estimate that the branch of the virus family tree that leads to SARS-CoV-2 diverged from related viruses between 1948 and 1982. Those dates suggest that the coronavirus lineage that gave rise to the virus behind the pandemic has been present in bats for decades.
That long period hints that more bat viruses with the potential to infect humans are circulating in horseshoe bats. Searching for such bat viruses can help identify potential threats before the pathogens make the jump, the team writes.
