Spillover: the role of bats and relationships as reservoirs of zoonotic viruses and the origin of new coronaviruses

Abstract

Since recent findings on coronavirus, there are numerous outstanding questions about the recent emergence of these viruses, their relationship to bats, environmental issues, gene recombinations, reservoirs, evolution and the role of human coronavirus in human infection. This review aimed to gather information about the possible origin of the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and its relationship with the alated mammals and the new strains found. Selected studies indicate that SARS-CoV-2 is a chimeric virus between a bat coronavirus and a coronavirus of unknown origin. One of the possibilities points to bats as being a reservoir originating from SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), transmitting to man via host source. The records indicate that a recombination between the coronaviruses of pangolins and the bat coronavirus BatCoV RaTG13 and SARS-CoV-2 human there is a common ancestry among these Betacoronaviruses, which were even identified in other mammalian species, named Ptajacu-CoV. Several questions were raised about the artificial origin of the virus by laboratory manipulation. However, although remote, further investigations are needed to rule out a probable release and the real existence of SARS-CoV-2 and beta coronaviruses, which circulate for decades among the human species.