I have yet to find a study that goes into the habitat of the animals at the market. I have a strong suspicion there are bats that share the same habitat. If that is the case, then these animals may be eating the bats, but, the more likely answer is that the bats are biting the animals. Bat guano can be a very toxic substance. If these animals are walking through it or exposed to it in any way, they can contract the virus in the feces.
If the bats are found to be infected with the virus found in the animals then it is an open and shut case.
By Smriti Mallapaty
Many of the first COVID-19 cases (click here) to be identified were linked to Wuhan’s Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market. Some studies have reasoned that people brought the virus to the market, where they passed it on to others, while other studies have suggested that the market was the site of the first spillover events, in which animals with the virus first infected people1. Although these earlier studies established the presence of animals susceptible to the virus that causes COVID-19, and the virus itself, at the market, they were not able to confirm that the animals were infected with the virus2.
“The missing link in the whole zoonotic story has been the animal,” says Edward Holmes, a virologist at the University of Sydney in Australia. “If you can show there are infected animals at the market, then the story is complete,” he says, referring specifically to animals infected with a progenitor of SARS-CoV-2.
The latest analysis suggests that infected animals were at the market at the same time that early cases of COVID-19 emerged there. “This is one more piece of indirect evidence that suggests a connection of the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic with the Huanan market,” says Christian Drosten, a virologist at the Charité University Hospital in Berlin....
Many of the first COVID-19 cases (click here) to be identified were linked to Wuhan’s Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market. Some studies have reasoned that people brought the virus to the market, where they passed it on to others, while other studies have suggested that the market was the site of the first spillover events, in which animals with the virus first infected people1. Although these earlier studies established the presence of animals susceptible to the virus that causes COVID-19, and the virus itself, at the market, they were not able to confirm that the animals were infected with the virus2.
“The missing link in the whole zoonotic story has been the animal,” says Edward Holmes, a virologist at the University of Sydney in Australia. “If you can show there are infected animals at the market, then the story is complete,” he says, referring specifically to animals infected with a progenitor of SARS-CoV-2.
The latest analysis suggests that infected animals were at the market at the same time that early cases of COVID-19 emerged there. “This is one more piece of indirect evidence that suggests a connection of the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic with the Huanan market,” says Christian Drosten, a virologist at the Charité University Hospital in Berlin....