[aristeides]

I think it was cathy ryan who reported that the genome of the new coronavirus is similar to that of SDA Virus in rats.

[InShanghai]

Thanks for the link. It's not the same one I was thinking of but it got me going in the right direction. Surprising similarities in the clinical analysis:

Clinical disease caused by this agent alone is self-limiting and is highly infectious, causing most or all of the colony to show signs of disease with very few deaths resulting. But, if it is exacerbated by any other virus or bacterial infection, which, unfortunately in our pet population, most often is, the mortality rate changes significantly.

I could never understand why anyone would want a rat as a pet.