Wild animals could be contagion source

The outbreak of viral pneumonia, centered in Wuhan, Hubei province, has a relatively low chance of infecting young children based on current understanding of the pathogen, Gao Fu, director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a news briefing in Beijing on Wednesday.

Wild animals could be the source of the outbreak, Gao said, adding that Chinese scientists have cultured, isolated and analyzed the genetic makeup of the microorganism, which is a key step in understanding the new strain of coronavirus and producing a vaccine.

The exact animal carrier is still being investigated even as the virus undergoes adaptations and mutations, he said, adding that, "It is like a cat-and-mouse game. Our understanding of the virus will deepen with further research."

Gao said that of the seven known coronaviruses that can infect humans, four are less harmful than seasonal influenza. However, SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome) are exceptions, and researchers are still racing to learn more about the newest strain.

A study published in the journal Science China Life Science suggests the new coronavirus strain is likely to have originated in bats, but there may be intermediate hosts between bats and humans.

Bats are known to carry some of nature's deadliest viruses, including Nipah, Hendra, Ebola, Marburg and SARS, according to the World Health Organization. These viruses do not harm bats due to the flying mammals' incredibly strong immune systems. But they can wreak havoc on humans and other animals.

The new viral strain is also genetically more similar to SARS than MERS. Around 88 percent of its gene sequence is identical to a SARS sample collected in 2017 from a cave of Chinese bats that proved to be the source of SARS, the National Genomics Data Center in Beijing reported in a study on Wednesday.

Despite the genetic similarity, the new virus is neither SARS nor MERS, but a close relative that belongs to a different class called the betacoronavirus-a single-stranded RNA virus that can infect wild animals, livestock and humans, the center said.