The mammal thought to act as a conduit for COVID between bats and people, have been shown to have merbecoviruses.
This “suggests frequent cross-species transmission of these viruses between bats and other animal species,” the researchers stated.
“This study highlights their potential zoonotic risk and reveals a distinct lineage of HKU5-CoVs in bats that efficiently use human [cells],” they said.
However, the new evidence indicates that HKU5-CoV-2 has a ‘greater potential for interspecies infection’ than previous HKU5-CoV viruses.,
Which were initially identified in bats in 2006. The possibility that HKU5-CoV-2 may spread to people, however, “remains to be investigated.”
