Virus detectives seek source of SARS in China's wild animals
Document Type:
Media
Citation:
Cyranoski, D. and Abbott, A. (2003, May 29). Virus detectives seek source of SARS in China's wild animals. Nature 423, 467. [Online]. Available: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v423/n6939/full/423467a.html;jsessionid=71BB49A258CED7172F23C290B990D420 [2003, May 29].
Year Published:
2003
Type Work:
Magazine Article
Availability:
Online
Language:
English
Country:
China
Url:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v423/n6939/full/423467a.html;jsessionid=71BB49A258CED7172F23C290B990D420
Bushmeat Asian Type:
Wildlife Trade
Keywords:
virus; SARS; China; palm civet; civet cat; market; bushmeat; health; diseases
Abstract:
Researchers investigating the source of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) have turned their attention to the wild-animal markets of southern China. The move follows reports that workers and animals at the markets show high rates of infection with coronaviruses, the family to which the virus believed to cause SARS belongs.
The possible link to wild animals emerged on 23 May, when a team from the University of Hong Kong revealed that a coronavirus resembling the SARS virus had been isolated from six masked palm civets (Paguma larvata) and a raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) in a market in Shenzhen, in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong. Antibodies against the virus were also found in a Chinese ferret badger (Melogale moschata) from the same market.
Although the virus is not the same as that believed to cause SARS












