The move means anyone found guilty of hunting and trading pangolins would face double the jail term. The general hunting and trading of pangolins have been banned in China since the late 1980s, but the exotic mammals are still trafficked by the thousands for their perceived nutritional value. Experts in China said in January that the coronavirus had likely jumped onto humans from wild animals sold as food at a wet market in Wuhan. The team's data confirmed that the pangolin coronavirus is genetically associated with both SARS-CoV-2 -- the novel virus behind the current pandemic -- and a group of bat coronaviruses. However, the researchers' analysis suggested that SARS-CoV-2 did not arise directly from the pangolin coronavirus, as had previously been suspected.

Source: Daily Mail June 05, 2020 15:41 UTC