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# 7593
Amid the flurry of reports yesterday we saw a high profile dispatch published in the EID Journal that announced the Detection Of MERS-CoV In Saudi Arabian Bat.
A research team that included Saudi Deputy Health Minister Ziad A. Memish, Dr. Ian Lipkin’s team at Columbia University, and researchers from EcoHealth Alliance - published they had found a virus from a bat in Saudi Arabia that they called `A 100% genetic match’ to the MERS Coronavirus.
In yesterday’s blog , I cautioned that this was not a 100% match to the entire viral genome , but to a subsection of the virus.
Today the inimitable Helen Branswell provides far greater detail on how this match was made, what it does and does not mean, and includes comments from the corresponding author Dr. Ian Lipkin and from Andrew Rambaut, a professor of molecular evolution at the University of Edinburgh.
Follow the link to read:
Virus fragment from bat in Saudi Arabia perfect match for MERS virus: study
By Helen Branswell, The Canadian Press August 21, 2013
Highly recommended.
