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WHO Traces SARS Virus to Civet Cat

By JONATHAN FOWLER, Associated Press Writer

GENEVA - The World Health Organization (news - web sites) has traced the SARS (news - web sites) virus to the civet cat and two other small mammals in China, and researchers are investigating a possible link to the outbreak of the virus in humans, an official said Friday.

Researchers from the University of Hong Kong examined 25 animals representing eight species in a live animal market in southern China and found the SARS virus in all six masked palm civets they sampled, as well as in a badger and a raccoon dog.

Klaus Stohr, chief SARS virologist at the World Health Organization, said Friday it was impossible to tell from the study whether any of the animals spread the virus to humans or whether they caught the virus from people.

The researchers said people could have been infected by the animals as they handled the animals while raising, slaughtering or cooking them. Eating fully cooked meat was probably safe, the researchers said.

Civet cats are nocturnal animals related to the mongoose, with long tails and catlike bodies. They resemble small raccoons or weasels.

The researchers said it was possible that animals got SARS from human feces used in fertilizer, and the illness did not originate with them. They recommended such game animals should be raised, slaughtered and sold under careful monitoring. Researchers have previously said SARS came from animals but not been sure what kind.

Meanwhile, the WHO lifted its SARS-related travel advisories Friday against Hong Kong and the Chinese province of Guangdong, and scientists in Hong Kong have found the SARS virus in three species of small mammals traded at a food market.

Also, an American physician with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) who was helping Taiwan battle SARS left the island Friday on a charter flight for Atlanta after developing a fever and other symptoms possibly caused by the virus.

Though the WHO said the virus was under control in Hong Kong and China's southern Guangdong province, it continued to advise against nonessential travel to the Chinese capital, Beijing, and to the regions of Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi and Tianjin. It also continued to advise against travel to Taiwan, because of continuing new transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome.

There also have been no recent reports of cases being exported to other countries from Hong Kong or Guangdong. All new cases in the past 20 days have occurred in people who were "already identified as contacts of a person with SARS and under active surveillance by the local health authorities," WHO added.

SARS has infected more than 8,000 people worldwide and killed at least 689, the vast majority in China and Hong Kong.

"The outbreak in many areas of China is ongoing, and will require continuing intensive efforts as well as a rapid injection of new resources to fully contain SARS," WHO said.

Also Friday, a private jet departed Taiwan for the United States carrying an American physician who came down with possible SARS symptoms. He had been sent to the island by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Taiwan's SARS Control Committee identified the doctor as Chesley L. Richards Jr., an infection control expert.

Richards arrived in Taiwan on May 15 and had visited the emergency rooms and intensive-care units at two Taipei hospitals where SARS outbreaks were reported, Taiwanese officials said.

This week, he developed a fever and a cough — common SARS symptoms, CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding said Thursday at the centers' headquarters in Atlanta.

WHO said the SARS virus has infected chains of up to 15 people and appears to be just as hardy in its last victim as in its first. Some other viruses mutate over time, and their ability to transmit weakens.

WHO says it is seeking $200 million to launch a fund to help Asian nations combat SARS through medical surveillance and analysis.

Taiwan reported 55 new SARS cases Friday but no new deaths. The island's total number of infections is 538 and the death toll is 60. That gives the island the third-highest toll after mainland China and Hong Kong.

In Canada, health officials say they fear that four people in a Toronto hospital may be ill with SARS. All four are in a respiratory isolation ward, two in critical condition.

Health officials, who learned of the cases late Thursday and do not yet know how the people may have been exposed to the disease, said they cannot say for certain if these are the city's first new SARS cases in over a month. The city last reported a new case of SARS on April 19.

In Singapore, a newspaper reported that some parents are keeping their children chilled with ice water and air conditioning before classes so they won't be sent home with suspected fevers as part of anti-SARS measures.

So they traced the source. This still begs the question, was it natural or assisted? If natural, then why didn't it happen 1000 years ago?

as well as in a badger and a raccoon dog.

Not in a 'coon dog!!!

I'm going to go out in the back yard and shoot Ol' Yeller right now.

"The researchers said it was possible that animals got SARS from human feces used in fertilizer, and the illness did not originate with them."

Yummy. Perhaps the UN will reward China by having it head the WHO...

Should this article (#12)have been posted on its own thread?

I thought the finding of SARS in three of eight species tested would bring more interest.

Also,finding SARS in all six civets tested,one badger and one raccoon dog (found wild and domestic over a large part of Asia and Europe) really spooks me.