O-54 - All market palm civets and raccoon dogs at Xinyuan market tested positive for SARS-CoV-like virus
At the Xinyuan live-animal market (Guangdong, January 2004), all 91 palm civets and all 15 raccoon dogs sampled tested RT-PCR positive for a SARS-CoV-like virus, and 22 of 24 environmental swabs (cages, walls, cash tables) were positive.
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Why this is evidence
That live-market civets and raccoon dogs carried a natural SARS-CoV-like virus in the 2004 emergence is a base-rate precedent that natural sarbecovirus spillover through the live-animal trade occurs — raising the natural-origin prior (H-41) over the lab members (H-42/H-43).