The World Health Organization investigators are currently searching for animals that could have spread the Covid-19 virus and effectively started a global pandemic. The researchers are currently looking into whether the virus was caused by ferret badgers or rabbits that can carry the virus, pass it to humans, and were sold at the Chinese market at which the earliest cases emerged. The WHO team will launch a deeper investigation into where the animals supplied at the market came from. The closest known relatives of the virus have been found in bats so far.
Team members have not yet established all of the animals that were sold at the market in question, which is located in Wuhan. This includes animals that were sold legally, illegally, alive, or dead, according to the WHO. The Chinese National Health Commission and foreign ministry have not yet commented on the development. It is unclear whether the virus spread straight from animals to humans at the market, or if it was already circulating elsewhere. The WHO team is also looking into mink farms in China after discovering that the virus was spread between mink and humans in Europe.
Read More: In Hunt for Covid-19 Origin, WHO Team Focuses on Two Animal Types in China