Hong Kong researchers have further confirmed that the severe
acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a zoonotic disease and the
SARS coronavirus has mutated in animals before transmitting to
human.
The ground-breaking research was published Thursday in
Science magazine by the American Association for the
advancement of Science.
The important findings were contained in a paper
titled "Isolation and characterization of viruses related to the
SARS coronavirus from animal in southern China," which was written
by a team from the Department
of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hong
Kong.
The researchers collected 25 animal samples from a number of
shops in the live animal retail market.
They successfully isolated SARS-like conovirus from 4 palm civet
cats. These viruses were sequenced and compared with 11 existing
genomes of the conovirus that cause SARS in humans.
While the animal and human viruses were closely related, genetic
analysis showed clear differences and suggested that the SARS
coronavirus was derived from the virus resident in animals.
In addition to civet cats, a raccoon-dog, a ferret badger, and
some of the workers at the same market showed evidence of infection
with a coronavirus similar to the human SARS virus. None of them
showing evidence of infection by this coronavirus reported
SARS-like symptoms in the last six months.
These important findings further confirmed that SARS is a
zoonotic disease and the SARS coronavirus has mutated in animals
before transmitting to human.
The researchers made the following recommendations: to enhance
screening programs in live animal markets for animal virus; to put
more resources to support the research on animal and human vaccine
to prevent and control further SARS cases worldwide; to enforce
stricter measures on live animal farming, to use proper fencing to
isolate farm animals from wild animals to prevent cross infection;
and to cook the meat thoroughly before eating.
(Xinhua News Agency September 5, 2003)