Scientists Confirm Cause Of SARS: Researchers Inject Monkeys With Suspected Virus

WXII12.com and Associate Press ^ | April 16, 2003

[vetvetdoug]

Thanks for the CDC link. It looks as another Murine virus has mutated and become another plague; Hantavirus revisited. I have worked with literally thousands of mice in research and rarely saw any pneumonia in the little critters. I was hoping for there to be more of the sequence to be closer to the Feline Coronavirus (FIP) because the technology to make an intranasal vaccine had already been perfected and there would be a track record for the vaccine makers to follow. As it is, they will have to start from ground zero.

As for the relationship with the paramyxovirus, I believe it was coincidental and the metapneumonia virus was a non-pathogenic saphrophytic strain.

[CathyRyan]

Murine virus has mutated and become another plague; Hantavirus revisited.

Guess that would go along with the blood found in the lungs at autopsy?

[k2blader]

No, they used monkeys to test whether they had identified the correct virus using samples taken from humans.

Ah, thank you.

So as I understand it, the coronavirus causes SARS. But where did it originate?

[Dog Gone]

Nobody knows today. Researchers claim that the genetic code proves that it came from animals, but I don't know enough about molecular biology to judge their claim.

The evidence strongly suggests that this is a virus which mutates, and is continuing to mutate today. Just a couple of days ago, they were stating that SARS is here to stay and that we needed to learn to deal with it. Personally, I don't know how they can say that if the thing keeps mutating.

Sure, it's possible that the virus will mutate into something even more deadly, but it might mutate back into something that doesn't affect us at all, like it was before.

[k2blader]

Thank you again, DG.

All I can say is, how freakish, yet fascinating...

[Lessismore]

The genome is said to be different from the other three families of known coronavirus.

In Guangdong, prosperity has given rise to many restaurants that serve a wide range of species.

Perhaps there are other coronaviruses that infect exotics? Although the known coronaviruses infect warm-blooded animals, the restaurants do serve a variety of reptiles as well.