SARS In The News

Chinese Researchers Confirm SARS Came from Animals

Reuters:

Genetic testing of animals sold as delicacies in a southern Chinese market confirms suspicions that the deadly SARS virus jumped from animals to people, Chinese researchers said on Thursday.

The researchers found clear differences between the animal and human versions of the virus, but said they were minor enough to show that SARS jumped from animals, as influenza and other viruses have done.

"It's a landmark discovery," said Kathryn Holmes of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, a leading expert on the coronavirus family that SARS belong to.

"The question that everyone has had is, 'how did this virus appear in the human population?"' Holmes added in a telephone interview. "This is the first major clue about where the contact might have come from.