A virus "closely related" to Covid-19 has been found in the pangolin, an animal smuggled into China and sold there.

The pangolin is the most trafficked mammal in the world.

It is used both as food and to make traditional medicines. Pangolin scales are in great demand for traditional Chinese medicine, and the meat is considered a delicacy in China.

Dr Tommy Lam, a researcher at the University of Hong Kong, said two types of coronavirus related to the human pandemic had been found in Malayan pangolins smuggled into China.

In a paper published in the journal Nature, the scientists say great care is needed in handling these animals, and that the sale of animals such as pangolins in wildlife markets should be strictly banned to reduce the risk of a deadly disease like the coronavirus spreading around the world in future.

They also say more monitoring and testing are needed to understand the role pangolins play in the risk of disease spreading to people.

"Although the role of pangolins as the direct host of the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak still needs to be confirmed, the sale of these animals in markets should be strictly prohibited if we are to prevent such animal-to-human pandemics in future," Dr Lam said.

Scientists say bats also carry coronaviruses, and these are even more similar to the virus infecting people. But one part, the part that helps the virus break into human cells, does not match.

Co-researcher Professor Edward Holmes of the University of Sydney said this means there are viruses in wildlife that can adapt to infect humans.

"Bats are surely linked to the coronavirus, perhaps pangolins too, but there is also a strong possibility that other animals are involved," he said.

Source: BBC Bangla. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.