Stray dogs may have been the ‘intermediary animal’ that spread coronavirus from bats to humans — rather than pangolins, as previously thought — a study claimed.
Canadian researchers who analysed the coronavirus genome argue that only a transmission route via dogs can explain their findings.
Paper author and biologist Xuhua Xia of the University of Ottawa proposes a scenario in which ‘the coronavirus first spread from bats to stray dogs eating bat meat.’
‘The ancestor of COVID-19 — a bat coronavirus — infected the intestine of dogs, most likely resulting in a rapid evolution of the virus and its jump into humans.’.