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Researchers found that 38 mammal, reptile, and bird species were sold in four markets in Wuhan between May 2017 and November 2019. The animals included raccoon dogs, civets, and minks, which scientists previously identified as possible intermediate hosts that spread the virus from a bat to the human population.

The study, published in peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports on June 7, was authored by researchers affiliated with China West Normal University, University of Oxford and the University of British Columbia. They happened to be conducting monthly surveys of 17 wild animal shops across Wuhan to look into potential animal sources of a pathogen unrelated to the novel coronavirus.

Scientists have yet to find the missing links between bats, the likely original host of SARS-CoV-2, and the first human cases. SARS-CoV-2 is the name of the virus that causes COVID-19.

A direct infection by bats in Wuhan is deemed unlikely because the city is far from their natural habitats, and the study said bats were not sold in the Wuhan markets it surveyed, including the Huanan seafood market.

A WHO-China joint mission to Wuhan earlier this year said the coronavirus likely jumped to humans through an intermediate host in a natural spillover event, although the head of WHO said all hypotheses remained on the table.

Some virologists have cited the study as further evidence that animals capable of carrying SARS-CoV-2 were actively traded in the city's markets in poor hygiene conditions and could have passed the virus on to people and triggered the pandemic that has killed more than 3.7 million people worldwide. 

Others, including those who believe that the virus spilled from a lab in Wuhan, have argued that the paper ruled out pangolins as an intermediate host of the virus, since the researchers did not find those animals at the markets.

Angela Rasmussen, a virologist with the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, who was not involved with the study, said the research strengthened the possibility of the natural emergence of SARS-CoV-2 by showing that some animals susceptible to the novel coronavirus were present in Wuhan. 

"It puts the animals in Wuhan and makes a compelling hypothesis," Rasmussen told VICE World News, although she said it was "not proof."

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