for the First time human infection with a new type of coronavirus could occur due to contact with snakes. To such conclusion the researchers from Beijing, Nanning, Ningbo and Wuhan.
“Our findings give reason to believe that the snake is the most likely animal carrier of the infection”, — stated in the document, the newspaper South China Morning Post.
In the course of the research, the scientists compared the genetic code of the virus with the genetic code of a large number of animals and found that the closest to the virus are the genetic codes of two types of snakes.
However, not all Chinese scholars share the opinion of groups of researchers. In the opinion of the expert on the Virology of the Institute of Zoology in Beijing Zheng Aihua, in itself the similarity of the genetic code is not a sufficient basis for such conclusions. To confirm this theory, further experiments, reports “Interfax”.
an Outbreak of pneumonia caused by a coronavirus 2019-nCoV, began in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019. At the moment, have become ill 617 people, 17 of them died. Due to the spread of infection Wuhan government took the decision to suspend transport communication with the city.
