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People with blood type A might be more vulnerable to the coronavirus, while those with type O blood could be more resistant, according to a new preliminary study from China. Researchers studying COVID-19 in its outbreak epicenter, Wuhan, and the city of Shenzhen found the proportion of Type-A patients both infected and killed by the disease to be “significantly” higher than those with the same blood type in the general public.

PORTLAND, Ore. - This coffee can cost as much as $700 a pound and $80 a cup, and it is processed through the digestive system of a cat. It's said to be the most expensive coffee in the world and it was served up Friday at the International Coffee Expo in Northeast Portland. An Indonesian company brews it here as it is done in cafes in Jakarta.  "It is very delicious, very smooth and so luxurious," said Valerie Sindal, director of sales and marketing for ValBeMar Specialty Coffee. Coffee cherries are eaten by Civet cats, processed through their digestive...

THE World Health Organisation said yesterday it had anecdotal evidence that exotic civet cats, suspected of spreading the SARS virus, were being clubbed to death in China. It warned that such slaughter methods might exacerbate the spread of SARS. "We've heard that some of the animals have been clubbed," Beijing-based WHO spokesman Bob Dietz said. "This puts all the people (involved in killing the civet cats) at risk." China ordered the mass destruction of civet cats - considered a delicacy in south China's Guangdong province - after confirmation this week of the country's first case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome...

Virus detectives seek source of SARS in China's wild animals Researchers investigating the source of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) have turned their attention to the wild-animal markets of southern China. The move follows reports that workers and animals at the markets show high rates of infection with coronaviruses, the family to which the virus believed to cause SARS belongs. The possible link to wild animals emerged on 23 May 2003, when a team from the University of Hong Kong revealed that a coronavirus resembling the SARS virus had been isolated from 6 masked palm civets (_Paguma larvata_) and a...

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...