[Domestic Church]

"Does that likely mean that monkeys and humans will be able to pass the virus back and forth? I can't see monkeys obeying quarantine restrictions voluntarily."

I don't know whether to laugh or cry, per loin!

Certainly sounds plausible. For all we know this could wipe out some other primates as well and even other mammals since the closest thing we can compare it with is a rat virus.

Also note that Foshan U, being known for its animal husbandry division would likely have plenty of monkeys for testing.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Certainly sounds plausible. For all we know this could wipe out some other primates as well and even other mammals since the closest thing we can compare it with is a rat virus.

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993637

SARS virus is mutating, fear doctors

"...The much higher rate of diarrhoea in Amoy Garden cases supports the idea of an altered tissue preference, meaning a viral strain that can attack the gut as well as the lungs..."

"...This switch mirrors effects seen in several animal coronaviruses. A bovine gut coronavirus, with some genetic sequences similar to the SARS virus, can also cause severe pneumonia in cattle. And in the 1980s, a pig gut coronavirus suddenly mutated into a respiratory infection in pigs..."

"...These switches involved mutations in the viral genes coding for the spike proteins, which form the protruding halo that gives coronaviruses their name. Luis Enjuanes and colleagues at Spain's National Centre for Biotechnology in Madrid have switched the pig virus from a mild respiratory infection to a virulent gut infection solely by changing the spike protein gene. Ominously, the gut form replicated much faster..."

Cows and pigs, a major basis of rural industry...