Isolated SARS-CoV-like viruses from Himalayan palm civets (and detected evidence of infection in a raccoon dog) sampled at a live-animal retail market in Guangdong; also found antibody evidence of infection in market workers. Animal isolates share 99.8% genome identity with human SARS-CoV but retain a 29-nucleotide sequence largely absent from human isolates, indicating the animal viruses were ancestral to (not derived from) the human epidemic strain. relevance_note: the foundational primary evidence for the SARS-1 zoonotic-spillover precedent — direct isolation of the animal virus at the exact kind of live-animal market setting the SARS-CoV-2 market-origin hypothesis analogizes to.