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Sars-Cov Research Paper

Decent Essays

Kendra Poirier Microbiology 9 December 2014 Finding the Natural Reservior of Sars-CoV A severe pneumonia-like virus suddenly appeared in February 2003 in Hanoi of the Guangdong providence in Southern China, and rapidly spread to thirty countries, infecting 8,098 people and killing more than 774 in a matter of months [3]. Investigations identified a Chlmydia-like organism using electron microscopy in patients who had died from this atypical pneumonia, however this could not be confirmed as the disease, as it was not seen in other patients outside China [3]. After a global collaboration, researchers identified the etiologic agent of this atypical pneumonia to be a coronoavirus, known known as SARS-CoV [3]. The disease was eventually …show more content…

Retrospective serologic studies indicated that proior to the SARS outbreak, there were no antibodies in the human population (KSIAZEK ET AL 2003). This finding was vitally important because it indicated that animal-to-human transmission is responsible for the SARS-CoV entrance into the human population. Two groups of researchers recently and independently demonstrated that bats (genus Rhinolophus) are natural reservoirs of Sars-like viruses, which provided very strong evidence that SARS-CoV was a zoonotic virus with wildlife orgin [6,7] The identification of a natural reservoir is both difficult and essential. A natural reservoir is where the virus “hides” between outbreaks, and is often difficult to identify because the organism does not display symptoms of the disease. Early observation of patterns in SARS-CoV transmission showed that many of the first patients were had gone to or worked in China’s exotic animal markets. Early studies in SARS-CoV identification focused on the wild-animal markets of southern China. Researchers in China identified a SARS-like-coronavirus in masked palm civets (Paguma larvata) and a raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) in one market in the city Shenzhen, part of the southern provience of Guangdong [8]. It was found that these animals had antibodies against a genetically close coronavirus. Interestingly enough ten civet

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