Cambodian researchers have identified “close relatives” of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in horseshoe bats.

According to the study, published in the preprint journal, virus samples stored in a freezer in 2010 have shown 92.6 per cent of similarity to the Covid-19 virus, as per media reports.

However, these virus samples have not been collected from China. This indicates that SARS-CoV-2 has larger geographic distribution than previously ascertained.

The study came at a time when the World Health Organization’s team is investigating the origins of the coronavirus pandemic in China.

According to the recent study, even when the first case of the virus was reported in China, the origin of the outbreak is still unknown.

A previous study carried out in May showed that some close relative pathogens of Covid-19 in two different horseshoe bat species have been sampled in 2013 and 2019.

However, this time, the researchers from Sorbonne University and Pasteur Institute in France and the University of California, Davis in the U.S. have uncovered two much closer relatives in samples from Shamel’s horseshoe bats which were collected in December 2010 in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Among the 430 samples they have studied, 16 tested positive for coronaviruses, while of the 16 positive samples, two of them exhibited a 92.6 per cent genetic similarity to the SARS-CoV-2, the paper said.

Southeast Asia is home to a high diversity of wildlife that hosts SARS-like coronaviruses. Researchers speculate that the region should be considered a key area in the ongoing search for the origins of SARS-CoV-2, and certainly in broader coronavirus surveillance efforts in the future.

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