There are many speculations about the possible animal source of SARS-CoV-2 such as bats, minks and pangolins. My objective of the discussion is to actually narrow down the potential sources. If we believe in the process of exclusion then excluding all other diversified food sources of all these three mammalian groups, the significantly common ones remain within the orders Hymenoptera, Dictyoptera, Lepidoptera, and Orthoptera. And almost all the members of these insect orders feed either as adults or larvae, on decomposing and dead organisms/matter as well as organisms that aid in the decomposition like fungi. Could it be that insects associated with damp, humid habitats serve as vectors of coronavirus on their exoskeleton without attesting any genetic marker to the virus itself and hence the virus genome fails to show the host effectively?
Abhishek Mukherjee
Coronavirus is not spread by insect vectors and food.... no reports.
There are lot of speculations about this virus SARSCoV-2. It has 76-79% sequence similarity with SARS CoV and 96% similarity with bat coronavirus.
It is still spreading massively around the world irrespective of any season. And WHO says, that peak is yet to come.
We hope the effective vaccine arrives soon and help the world to build the herd immunity faster to get rid of this weird stuff.
Bats are the primary reservoirs of Coronaviruses while other different animals are the intermediates in spread to the humans. Pangolin origin of SARS-CoV-2 is the most probable.
To see and understand this, the following articles tell us all about it:
1. Preprint SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) by the numbers
2. Article The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2
3. Article Bat origin of human coronaviruses
4. Article Animal origins of SARS Coronavirus: Possible links with the ...
5. Article Probable Pangolin Origin of SARS-CoV-2 Associated with the C...
The new COVID-19 is caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2. The most likely ecological reservoirs for SARS-CoV-2 are bats, but it is believed that the virus jumped the species barrier to humans from another intermediate animal host. This intermediate animal host could be a domestic food animal, a wild animal, or a domesticated wild animal which has not yet been identified.
There are evidences to believe that bat may serve as reservoir of Coronavirus.
Thank you everyone who has managed to spare time to participate in the discussion. All of the answers reiterated information already known but the discussion was on the potential hidden reservoirs of coronavirus. Bats serve as vectors, but how do bats obtain the virus in the first place? Is there any research on this?
May be because of the absence of homoeostatic thermoregulation or the angiotensin 1 converter enzyme (ACE2), the poikilothermic hosts never register their viral pay loads in their genome as the viruses simply never infect them.
Is ethnicity linked to incidence or outcomes of covid-19?
https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m1548
The SARS-CoV-2 causing COVID-19 is believed to have zoonotic origin. After the analysis of genome sequence of SARS-CoV-2, it showed close genetic resemblance with bat corona viruses, suggesting its emergence from a bat borne virus.
To all who has taken part in the discussion - thank you. Although, the intended object of the discussion is still left untouched, apart from what Khaja G.M. Biyabani has suggested.