Virus in Malayan pangolin similar

Researchers isolate one type that closely resembles Covid-19 coronavirus

Researchers in China studying the origin of the coronavirus that caused Covid-19 have targeted pangolins from South-East Asia, including Malaysia.

In the study Isolation and Characterization of 2019-nCoV-like Coronavirus from Malayan pangolins, the researchers said one coronavirus isolated from the animals showed very close similarities to 2019-nCoV, the official name of Covid-19.

“The new coronavirus shares high sequence identity to SARS-CoV (the virus that caused SARS) and a newly identified bat coronavirus.

“While bats may be the reservoir host for various coronaviruses, whether 2019-nCoV has other hosts is still ambiguous.

“In this study, one coronavirus isolated from Malayan pangolins showed 100%, 98.2%, 96.7% and 90.4% amino acid identity with 2019-nCoV in the E, M, N and S genes, respectively,” they said.

“In particular, the receptor-binding domain of the S protein of the

Pangolin-CoV is virtually identical to that of 2019-nCoV, with one amino acid difference,” the researchers said.

The identification of the SARSCoV-2-related coronaviruses came from the pangolins of the species Manis javanica, which were seized in anti-smuggling operations by Guangxi Customs in southern China, the researchers added.

“We received frozen tissue samples from lungs, intestine and blood, which were collected from 18 Malayan pangolins from August 2017 to January 2018.

“The newly identified coronavirus in the most-trafficked mammal could represent a continuous threat to public health if wildlife trade is not effectively controlled,” they said.

The Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica), also known as the Malayan or Javan pangolin, is the species found in Malaysia as well as other countries in South-East Asia.

When the researchers first announced their findings earlier this year, many scientists and wildlife conservationists advised caution as the paper had yet to be peer reviewed.

While the species is illegally trafficked to both Vietnam and China for its scales and meat, the dwindling number in the wild from poaching means that they are being increasingly replaced by pangolin species from African countries.

The paper of the study was published in Nature.

An abstract of the study is also available on bioRxiv, an open access preprint repository for the biological sciences.

As preprints, papers hosted on bioRxiv are not peer reviewed.