The authors explain that a new virus appears when two different strains infect an animal at the same time,
At the moment there is a basic theoryemergence of SARS-CoV-2: it arose as a result of such homologous recombination of different strains of bat coronaviruses, and was then transferred to humans through an intermediate host that acted as a reservoir. This intermediate host was probably one of the pangolin species.
In a new work, the researchers found thatthe number of associations between mammalian species and strains of coronavirus is currently 11 times more than previously thought. In addition, they estimate that there are nearly 40 times more mammalian species that can be infected with a diverse set of COVID-19 strains.
For example, the Asiatic palm civet and the large horseshoe bat may host 32 and 68 different coronaviruses, respectively.
Identifying species with a potentially high risk of generating new coronavirus strains is necessary to strengthen surveillance of the spread of zoonotic viruses, the authors note.
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