The COVID-19 pandemic has thrust wildlife health and zoonotic disease to the forefront. Yet researchers are still unsure where the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes the disease, originated. It’s been a controversial question that has divided researchers, who have questioned whether it originated from an animal in the wild or if it escaped from a lab. The World Health Organization has selected a group of 26 scientists, ranging from wildlife biologists to biosafety experts, to form a Scientific Advisory Group for the Origin of Novel Pathogens, or SAGO, to determine the virus’s origin.
Article by The Wildlife Society
