What is a raccoon dog and why is it being linked to COVID-19’s origin? – GLOBAL

March 21, 2023

Last week, a team of international researchers shared with the world a discovery possibly linking the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic to a breed of animal in a Wuhan, China wet market: specifically, a raccoon dog.

French virologist Florence Débarre of the French National Centre for Scientific Research spotted the information by chance while scouring a worldwide database, and shared it with a group of scientists based outside of China looking into the origins of the coronavirus.

The genetic sequences were uploaded to the world’s biggest public virus database in late January, but have since been removed.

According to the World Health Organization, genetic sequencing data showed that some of the samples taken at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, which were known to be positive for the coronavirus, also contained genetic material from raccoon dogs, indicating the animals may have been infected by the virus, according to the scientists.

Read more: https://globalnews.ca/news/9565613/raccoon-dogs-covid-19-pandemic-origin/