Coronavirus: The race to find the source in wildlife
This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Omaha Steve (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).
Source: BBC
Somewhere in China, a bat flits across the sky, leaving a trace of coronavirus in its droppings, which fall to the forest floor. A wild animal, possibly a pangolin snuffling for insects among the leaves, picks up the infection from the excrement.
The novel virus circulates in wildlife. Eventually an infected animal is captured, and a person somehow catches the disease, then passes it on to workers at a wildlife market. A global outbreak is born.
Scientists are attempting to prove the truth of this scenario as they work to find wild animals harbouring the virus. Finding the sequence of events is "a bit of a detective story", says Prof Andrew Cunningham of Zoological Society London (ZSL). A range of wild animal species could be the host, he says, in particular bats, which harbour a large number of different coronaviruses.
snip
The mammals gather in large colonies, fly long distances and are present on every continent. They rarely get sick themselves, but have the opportunity to spread pathogens far and wide. According to Prof Kate Jones of University College London, there is some evidence bats have adapted to the energetic demands of flight and are better at repairing DNA damage. "This might enable them to cope with a higher burden of viruses before getting sick - but this is just an idea at present."
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-51496830
I hate Chinese "medicine"!!!!
Using endangered animals, like the pangolin, is simply criminal.
= new reply since forum marked as read
It makes them poor prey being they can and will kill if eaten.
They know this already.
Why anyone would eat a bat is beyond me! 
