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Pangolins are a prime suspect, but a slew of genetic analyses has yet to find conclusive proof.
Scientists are racing to identify the source of the coronavirus that is causing havoc around the world. Three weeks ago, Chinese scientists suggested, on the basis of genetic analyses, that the scaly, ant-eating pangolin was the prime suspect. But scientists have now examined those data — along with three other pangolin coronavirus genome studies released last week — and say that although the animal is still a contender, the mystery is far from solved.
Public-health officials want to pin down the virus’s source so they can prevent new outbreaks. Scientists assume that the pathogen jumped to people from an animal, as has been seen with other coronaviruses; for example, the virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is thought to have jumped to humans from civets in 2002. Dozens of people infected early in the current outbreak worked in a live-animal market in the Chinese city of Wuhan, but tests of coronavirus samples found at the market have yet to identify a source.
Three separate Chinese teams are trying to trace the origin of the coronavirus, including a group from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and one from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Miscommunication
Researchers at the South China Agricultural University in Guangzhou suggested pangolins as the animal source at a press conference on 7 February. Pangolins are highly sought-after in China for their meat and their scales; the latter are used in traditional medicine. Although sales of the animal are forbidden in China as part of a worldwide ban, they are still smuggled in from a handful of southeast Asian and African countries. The researchers said they had found a coronavirus in smuggled pangolins that was a 99% genetic match to the virus circulating in people.
But the result did not actually refer to the entire genome. In fact, it related to a specific site known as the receptor-binding domain (RBD), say the study’s authors, who posted their analysis1 on the biomedical preprint server bioRxiv on 20 February. The press-conference report was the result of an “embarrassing miscommunication between the bioinformatics group and the lab group of the study”, explains Xiao Lihua, a parasitologist at the South China Agricultural University and a co-author of the paper. A whole-genome comparison found that the pangolin and human viruses share 90.3% of their DNA.
The RBD is a crucial part of coronaviruses, which allows them to latch on to and enter a cell. Even a 99% similarity between the RBDs of the two viruses is not necessarily enough to link them, says Linfa Wang, a virologist at Duke–National University of Singapore Medical School who was part of the team that found the origin of the SARS virus.
Not close enough
Three similar comparison studies were posted on bioRxiv last week. One of those papers — by an international research group , posted on 18 February — found2 that coronaviruses in frozen cell samples from illegally trafficked pangolins shared between 85.5% and 92.4% of their DNA with the virus found in humans.
Two other papers published on 20 February, from groups in China, also studied coronaviruses from smuggled pangolins. The viruses were 90.23%3 and 91.02%4 similar, respectively, to the virus that causes COVID-19.
The genetic similarity should be higher than reported in these studies before the host can be identified, says Arinjay Banerjee, who studies coronaviruses at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. He notes that the SARS virus shared 99.8% of its genome with a civet coronavirus, which is why civets were considered the source. If pangolins are the origin of the current outbreak, says Banerjee, it is not the pangolins in these studies.
Key differences
So far, the closest match to the human coronavirus has been found in a bat in China’s Yunnan province. A study5 published on 3 February found that the bat coronavirus shared 96% of its genetic material with the virus that causes COVID-19. Bats could have passed the virus to humans, but there are key differences between the RBD sites in the two viruses. This suggests that this specific bat coronavirus did not directly infect people, but could have been transmitted it to people through an intermediate host, say researchers.
The papers raise more questions than they answer, says Jiang Zhigang, an ecologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Zoology in Beijing. He asks, if pangolins are the source of the virus, and they came from another country, why haven’t there been reports of people being infected in that location?
The first UNEP synthesis report is titled: “Making Peace With Nature: A scientific blueprint to tackle the climate, biodiversity and pollution emergencies” and is based on evidence from global environmental assessments.
The report flags the interlinkages between our environmental and development challenges and describes the roles of all parts of society in the transformations needed for a sustainable future.
Since 2013, ATIBT has implemented a major program to involve the private sector in FLEGT, REDD+ and certification processes. This program is currently coming to an end after 7 years of implementation in 5 countries.
UN Climate Change News, 1 February – The UN Climate Change Secretariat today announced Regional Climate Weeks in 2021 and 2022, key meetings that will help build regional momentum for the annual UN Climate Change Conferences and drive forward regional implementation of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.
The workshop held from 02 to 04 February 2021 comes after the "second CBFP Civil Society Day" organized on 10 December 2020 in Kinshasa with the support of the German CBFP Facilitation.
To inspire and support these actions, the Cool Coalition and the Climate & Clean Air Coalition have developed a brief that outlines shovel-ready strategies, best practices and case studies from around the world.
From 2 to 4 February 2021, the auditorium of the French Institute of Cameroon in Yaoundé hosted the fifth edition of the "COP CHEZ NOUS" organized by the Association Jeunesse Verte du Cameroun (AJVC) which runs the Technical Secretariat of the Central African Youth Network for the Sustainable Management of Forest and Wetland Ecosystems (REJEFAC).
The Policy Council on “Safer, Resilient and Sustainable Cities, Capable of Facing Crises” convened on Thursday, 11 February. The Council is co-chaired by Fatimetou Abdel Malick, President of the Nouakchott Regional Council, Mauritania, Johnny Araya, Mayor of San José, Costa Rica, Co-President of UCLG, and Sami Kanaan, Mayor of Geneva, Switzerland.
A study by the University of Wolverhampton’s Centre for International Development and Training (CIDT), has revealed that global climate goals and livelihoods of forest communities are at risk due to increased illegal logging in the forests of the Congo Basin.
The Climate Adaptation Summit (CAS) 2021 launched the Adaptation Action Agenda 2030 and Decade of Action, establishing practical climate adaptation solutions and plans leading to 2030. The Adaptation Action Agenda 2030, which will guide the Decade of Action towards 2030, joins over 50 partners to establish initiatives aimed at concrete actions and partnerships to increase climate resiliency.
Capping a year that was one of the three warmest on record, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) released its fifth Adaptation Gap Report, finding that although many nations have advanced in adaptation planning, developing countries face a significant gap in adaptation finance.
The first school year of the Master of Wood Sciences will start in September 2021 at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Montpellier to train executives, engineers and future researchers, who will be the driving force behind development and innovation in local and tropical companies in the Forest-Wood sector and research laboratories.
Within the framework of the FLEGT-REDD, FLEGT-IP and FLEGT certification projects (financed respectively by the Fonds Français pour l'Environnement, the European Union and the PPECF), the Syndicat des Producteurs Industriels du Bois en Côte d'Ivoire (SPIB), the Union des Forestier et Industriels du Bois du Gabon (UFIGA) and ATIBT have commissioned the production of short films to raise awareness among stakeholders in the forest and timber sector on major issues involving the private sector.
Following the GLF Biodiversity’s One World - One Health online conference, during which the Sustainable Wildlife Management Programme ( SWM) launched the White paper and Advisory Note entitled : “Build Back Better in a Post-Covid-19 world: Reducing future wildlife-borne spillover of disease to humans”, we are delighted to announce that the publications are now available in French.
Held as part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), COP21 resulted in the Paris Agreement, which was ratified by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 2016.
In the small remote village of Dia, on the edge of Messok Dja, one of the last sanctuaries of forest elephants and great apes in the world, children had been out of school for over 4 years. In July 2016, Ezra and his friends celebrated the end of the school year. Little did they know it would be their last school year "No one dreamed that would be our last day of school!” He recalls.
With its creation being supported by the APEF Program and spearheaded by the APN, the Ennedi Natural and Cultural Reserve (ENCR) was officially created in February 2019. Managed since its creation by the African Parks Network (APN), the ENCR is Chad’s newest protected area. As it enters its third year of management, the balance sheet is quite positive for this reserve spanning 40,000 km² on the edge of the Sahara.
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If you have an interest in forest monitoring and learning first-hand about how forests in the Congo basin are managed for conservation, nature, economic development and livelihoods then we’d like to invite you to a webinar series taking place from 22-26 February 2021 via Zoom marking the end of the Citizen Voice for Change (CV4C) project.
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Gabon presents its ambitions for the timber industry through the “2021-2023 acceleration plan”. This plan aims to accelerate the diversification of Gabon's economy. The country's objective is to become the world leader in processed tropical wood. "We are already the leading producer of plywood in Africa. We can be by 2023 the leader of processed tropical wood in the world," said the Prime Minister on January 18, by presenting this development strategy.
SUMMARY: The Park was honored to host a visit by the Minister of Forest Economy, Ms Rosalie Matondo, and her delegation, to the Park’s HQ in Bomassa. During her visit, the Minister gained a better understanding of the challenges faced by biodiversity conservation and met with civil society in Bomassa....
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We bid farewell to 2020 with little regret—it has been an unusually difficult year for most, including in the tropical forest sector. But even in these grimmest of times, there is cause for optimism. With the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration upon us, the latest edition of the TFU presents stories about restoring and sustainably using forests. We look forward to 2021 in solidarity and hope.
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Cambridge UK, 5th January 2021 – The course ‘Prevention on Wildlife Trafficking’ launched by FIATA International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations and TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, is now available free of charge in seven languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish).
China / UK, 8th January 2021—Customs officials in China and Laos met in a ground-breaking virtual forum to discuss the future measures both countries can take to combat illegal wildlife trafficking across their borders.
Austria, Belgium, Denmark, the Republic of Korea, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and Sweden have communicated their long-term low greenhouse gas (GHG) emission development strategies (LEDS) to the UNFCCC, bringing the total number of LEDS to 28. According to the Paris Agreement on climate change, “all Parties should strive to formulate and communicate long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies” to the UNFCCC by 2020.
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