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Close relatives of the coronavirus may have been in bats for decades
Viruses from the coronavirus lineage responsible for Covid-19 have been circulating in bats
for decades, long before the virus started infecting people last year, a new study suggests.
How exactly the virus jumped to humans is still a mystery. But the study suggests the
coronavirus most likely evolved in bats — such as intermediate horseshoe bats, the source of the
coronavirus that caused the 2003–2004 SARS outbreak — not snakes or pangolins as some
researchers have suggested. Pangolins or another animal might still have been an intermediate
host before the virus made it to humans.
Based on the evolutionary relationship among the 68 coronaviruses, the researchers
estimate that the coronavirus lineage that gave rise to the virus behind the pandemic has been
present in bats for decades.
That long period hints that more bat viruses with the potential to infect humans are
circulating in horseshoe bats. Searching for such bat viruses can help identify potential threats
before the pathogens make the jump, the team writes.
Adaptado de https://www.sciencenews.org/article/covid-19-coronavirus-evolution-close-relatives-bats?