Stray dogs eating bat meat could have sparked pandemic, study suggests

Professor Xuhua Xia analysed all 1,252 full-length betacoronavirus genomes deposited into the open access GenBank database.

The global coronavirus pandemic may have started after a stray dog ate bat meat, a study has indicated.

Feral canines are the most likely animal intermediate host for the transmission of Sars-CoV-2 into humans, suggested Professor Xuhua Xia after studying coronavirus signatures across different species.