Nearly five years after Covid first emerged, the international community has not been able to determine with certainty exactly where the virus came from.

After an in-depth analysis of the genetic material from hundreds of swabs taken from the walls, floors, machines and drains inside the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China — a site that’s been described as an epicenter of early spread of Covid-19 — scientists say they now know exactly which species of animals were in the same area where investigators also found the most positive samples the virus that causes Covid-19.

A new peer-reviewed paper presents evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic started in a seafood market in Wuhan, China, where many of the first cases of the disease were identified. The paper, published Thursday in the scientific journal Cell,

The origin of the COVID-19 virus continues to be a hotly debated topic even as the world seems to have recovered from the impact of the pandemic that brought the world to a standstill for much of 2020 and 2021.

Scientists searching for the origins of COVID-19 have zeroed in on a short list of animals that possibly helped spread it to people, an effort they hope could allow them to trace the outbreak back to its source.

That theory is now supported by a new study analyzing more than 800 samples collected in and around the market in January 2020 as the pandemic began. Those samples show that animal species known to carry the COVID coronavirus were present in the market,

Genetic evidence from a new report suggests the coronavirus pandemic most likely spilled over from animals in the Wuhan market.