News in Brief Health & Medicine

Evidence mounts for bat origins of SARS

New viruses in the mammals closely match human form of the infection

BAT-SARS LINK GROWS  New viruses found in Chinese horseshoe bats resemble the SARS coronavirus and use the receptor molecule that SARS does to infect human cells.

Libiao Zhang/South China Institute of Endangered Animals

By Ashley Yeager

- More than 2 years ago

Chinese horseshoe bats carry two newly identified viruses that are closely related to the coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, in people.