Scientists say pandemic started by stray dogs eating bat Covid-19 meat

The global coronavirus pandemic started in Wuhan, China by stray dogs eating infected bat meat, scientists claim in a new study.

Professor Xuhua Xia, from the University of Ottawa’s biology department, claims stray dogs are the most likely intermediate host for the transmission of Sars-CoV-2 into humans. He published his findings with the journal of Molecular Biology and Evolution.

The bat virus infected the stray dogs’ intestines then evolved into humans through the Chinese eating the dogs that hold the ancestor of the new Covid-19.

Professor Xia said, regions of DNA-CpG dinucleotides tells the immune system to attack coronavirus, but a single strand of the virus can avoid a human’s natural defences as the CpG is reduced.

He added, that after analysing the betacoronavirus genomes researchers found the closest relative is Sars-CoV-2 and the bat Covid-19 hold the lowest levels of CpG.

The study said the cellular receptor for Sars-CoV-2 is “pervasively expressed in the human digestive system.

“This is consistent with the interpretation that the low CpG in Sars-CoV-2 was acquired by the ancestor of Sars-CoV-2 evolving in mammalian digestive systems.

“The interpretation is further corroborated by a recent report that a high proportion of Covid-19 patients also suffer from digestive discomfort.

“In fact, 48.5% presented with digestive symptoms as their chief complaint.”

The Professor concluded that “the importance of monitoring Sars-like coronaviruses in feral dogs in the fight against Sars-CoV-2.”

“While the specific origins of SARS-CoV-2 are of vital interest in the current world health environment, this study more broadly suggests that important evidence of viral evolution can be revealed by consideration of the interaction of host defense with viral genomes, including selective pressure exerted by host tissues on viral genome composition.”

Professor James Wood, head of the department of Veterinary Medicine and researcher in infection dynamics at the University of Cambridge, said, he sees nothing in the “study to support” these claims.

“There is far too much inference and far too little direct data. I do not see anything in this paper to support this supposition and am concerned that this paper has been published in this journal.”

However, a Taiwanese scientist has claimed Chinese microbiologists probably created coronavirus in Wuhan, China.

Based on the virus unusual structure it is most likely “man made” and there is a theory coronavirus was somehow leaked or released from the Institute of Virology in Wuhan China, said Professor Fang Chi-tai from the National Taiwan University (NTU).

Biologists Botao Xiao and Lei Xiao published a pre-print entitled “The possible origins of 2019-nCoV coronavirus.”

The report describes how “the killer coronavirus probably originated from a laboratory in Wuhan.

“We noted two laboratories conducting research on bat coronavirus in Wuhan, one of which was only 280 metres from the seafood market.

“We briefly examined the histories of the laboratories and proposed that the coronavirus probably originated from a laboratory.