New study suggest Wuhan Flu possibly started by eating smuggled pangolins

[rolltide]

study up at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2169-0
overview at https://www.sciencealert.com/corona...-why-wildlife-markets-need-better-regulations

A search for the 'missing link' in the chain of the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 has uncovered two close cousins of the new coronavirus in shipments of pangolins being smuggled into China.

The sale of pangolins in China is already far from legal, but without the political will to provide the resources necessary to enforce the law, their sale will almost certainly continue to flourish, in spite of recent widespread bans of the sale and distribution of wild meats.

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Unlike horseshoe bats, though, the pangolin is almost guaranteed to have been on sale there.

The illicit sale of the endangered mammal - prized as a delicacy and a health tonic - is an 'open secret' throughout much of the nation, and a good place to start hunting for an intermediate host of the zoonotic virus currently wreaking havoc across the globe.

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[Seymour]

I watched some investigation a while back - those those are supposed to be a delicacy over there

 

[rolltide]

What is a pangolin?

[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Calibri,Geneva,sans-serif]A pangolin is a small mammal covered in sharp plates—a sort-of pinecone with legs and a tongue, an army tank that triggers a cuddle reflex. Some adult pangolins weigh as little as chihuahuas, some as much as golden retrievers. The Google search results for “pangolin riding on another pangolin’s back” are rich and worthwhile. Pangolins like mud! Pangolins eat termites. (Why are animals that eat termites often very cute? See also: aardwolves.) Pangolins curl up into a ball when they are scared, their soft bellies protected by an exterior of scales. Here is a lion trying—and failing—to eat a mighty curled-up pangolin.

What are some reasons to care about pangolins, aside from all of the above? Pangolins are the most trafficked mammal on the planet, according to National Geographic. Thousands of pangolins are killed every year at the machetes of poachers for their scales, which are believed (just believed) to be useful for everything from infections to cancer. Eating pangolin fetuses is believed to make men more virile. All of the species of pangolin (there are eight) are endangered or vulnerable as a result. Selling the scales, which are made of the same stuff as your fingernails, is illegal, but it took an American journalist less than an hour to track them down in a market in China armed with a scrap of paper that said “pangolin scales” in Chinese.

[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Calibri,Geneva,sans-serif]So, despite the creatures’ endangered status, people interact with pangolins pretty regularly, which means it’s plausible that the new coronavirus could have jumped from one of the pangolins to one of us.[/FONT]

 

[sportsm60]

What is a pangolin?

A pangolin is a small mammal covered in sharp plates—a sort-of pinecone with legs and a tongue, an army tank that triggers a cuddle reflex. Some adult pangolins weigh as little as chihuahuas, some as much as golden retrievers. The Google search results for “pangolin riding on another pangolin’s back” are rich and worthwhile. Pangolins like mud! Pangolins eat termites. (Why are animals that eat termites often very cute? See also: aardwolves.) Pangolins curl up into a ball when they are scared, their soft bellies protected by an exterior of scales. Here is a lion trying—and failing—to eat a mighty curled-up pangolin.

What are some reasons to care about pangolins, aside from all of the above? Pangolins are the most trafficked mammal on the planet, according to National Geographic. Thousands of pangolins are killed every year at the machetes of poachers for their scales, which are believed (just believed) to be useful for everything from infections to cancer. Eating pangolin fetuses is believed to make men more virile. All of the species of pangolin (there are eight) are endangered or vulnerable as a result. Selling the scales, which are made of the same stuff as your fingernails, is illegal, but it took an American journalist less than an hour to track them down in a market in China armed with a scrap of paper that said “pangolin scales” in Chinese.


So, despite the creatures’ endangered status, people interact with pangolins pretty regularly, which means it’s plausible that the new coronavirus could have jumped from one of the pangolins to one of us.

It looks like a similar type critter to an armadillo. You can get leprosy just from touching one.

 

[StevieRay]

Any thing those nasty fucks don’t eat?

 

[Doug]

fucking thing looks prehistoric and sounds like a name for a musical instrument !

 

[mango]

Wrong.


Scientists studied viruses in pangolins (Manis javanica) captured in anti-smuggling activities in southern China. The identified coronaviruses, however, are different enough from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, to hint that pangolins were not directly responsible for transmitting the virus to people, which had been suggested.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/covid-19-no-evidence-coronavirus-jumped-pangolin-people

 

[PatsFan1283]

Nothing to add but just saw China shutdown movie theaters again so cases ramping back up there whether they would admit to it or not.

 

[X-Files]

fucking thing looks prehistoric and sounds like a name for a musical instrument !

Was thinking the same thing when i saw the pic.

 

[Mobdeeper7239]

Nothing to add but just saw China shutdown movie theaters again so cases ramping back up there whether they would admit to it or not.

Yup

 

[X-Files]

"The official explanation is still unknown, but many are speculating that Beijing is fearful of a potential second wave of coronavirus cases."

"Theaters that were preparing to re-open had been given specific permission from their local governments, after proving compliance with all health and safety regulations. On Thursday, the municipal authorities in Shanghai announced it had given the go-ahead to 205 theaters to re-open on Saturday. The China Film Group, the state-backed distributor that controls all movie release dates in the country, announced a plan to re-release past blockbuster titles, such as “Wolf Warrior 2” and “The Wandering Earth,” as well as Hollywood fare like “The Avengers” franchise and “Green Book,” in order to entice audiences back into seats."

"Still, ticket sales were low as fearful audiences stayed home. The Zhongying Golden Palm Cinema in Xinjiang provincial capital Urumqi became the first movie theater in China to reopen its doors on March 22, but not a single moviegoer showed up on day one. The national daily box office intake was in the low thousands of dollars."

“We can’t stay closed forever,” the theater operator said at the time. “We can only cooperate with the notices, and test the situation a bit, and see what feedback we get from the public. If there are no new films, it makes no difference if we’re open or not. At the moment, we only have these few films; we have to wait and see if there will be new movies released.”

This is not the first time the Chinese government has reversed course. In late February, local officials said they would loosen quarantine restrictions in Wuhan, the original site of the outbreak, allowing healthy people to leave the city. Hours later, it rescinded the order, saying it had been an “invalid” decision made without higher authorization.

https://www.indiewire.com/2020/03/china-movie-theaters-shut-down-coronavirus-1202220888/

 

[snoop]

Animal Planet is Chinese Food Network.