Bats are critically important for ecosystems around the world But they also harbor some of the toughest known zoonotic diseases, and are the likely origin point for this coronavirus. In the early 2000s, a coronavirus infecting bats jumped into raccoon dogs and other wild mammals in southwestern china Some of those animals were sold in markets, where the coronavirus jumped again, into humans The result was the sars pandemic, which spread to 33 countries and claimed 774 lives. There are no known zoonotic (harmful to humans) coronaviruses found in uk bats.
The ancestors of both coronaviruses circulated in bats across much of china and neighboring countries for hundreds of thousands of years.
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