O-40 - SARS-CoV-2 positivity concentrated at wildlife stall A, whose five positive samples all contained susceptible-mammal (incl. raccoon dog) mtDNA
Sampling: 1 Jan 2020, 515 samples, 27 qPCR-positive (25 sequenced); 12 Jan, 70 samples from 7 wildlife stalls (3 qPCR-positive, all 70 sequenced). Three independent spatial signals (qPCR, mNGS, drains) converge on wildlife stall A in the market’s western/wildlife section. In the five positive stall-A samples, wildlife mtDNA (raccoon dog, hoary bamboo rat, European rabbit, etc.) was present; excluding 16S/12S rRNA regions did not change the result. Nutria and foxes appeared only in SARS-CoV-2-negative samples/stalls. This is a co-location finding on the China-CDC market set (D-1), shared with S-39 (Bloom); it establishes co-location, not infection.
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Why this is evidence
Viral positives co-located with susceptible-mammal (raccoon dog) mtDNA, with humans not the dominant mammal, is predicted by an animal source (H-14) and against a human-deposited seed (H-15).