Researchers from Guangzhou, China have suggested that pangolins may be an animal intermediate source of the coronavirus between the bat and humans in the epidemic that has infected more than 31,000 people. Pangolins are scaly mammals often used in traditional Chinese medicine or appreciated as food for their tender flesh. Two researchers in the South China Agricultural University in Guangzhou says they have identified the pangolin as the potential source of new virus on the basis of a genetic comparison of coronaviruses taken from the animals and from humans infected in the outbreak . The sequences are 99% similar, the researchers reported at press conference on 7 February. The results and data of this work would be published soon said the president of the South China Agricultural University.
3D animation for editorial use only.