The recent outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan turned into a public health emergency of international concern. With no antiviral drugs nor vaccines, and the presence of carriers without obvious symptoms, traditional public health intervention measures are significantly less effective. Here, we report the epidemiological and virological characteristics of the COVID-19 outbreak. Originated in bats, 2019-nCoV/ severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV)-2 likely experienced adaptive evolution in intermediate hosts before transfer to humans at a concentrated source of transmission. Similarities of receptor sequence binding to 2019-nCoV between humans and animals suggest a low species barrier for transmission of the virus to farm animals. We propose, based on the One Health model, that veterinarians and animal specialists should be involved in a cross-disciplinary collaboration in the fight against this epidemic.

中文翻译：

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COVID-19：流行病学、进化和跨学科观点。

最近在武汉爆发的 COVID-19 疫情已成为国际关注的突发公共卫生事件。由于没有抗病毒药物和疫苗，且存在无明显症状的携带者，传统的公共卫生干预措施效果明显较差。在此，我们报告了 COVID-19 爆发的流行病学和病毒学特征。2019-nCoV/严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒 (SARS-CoV)-2 起源于蝙蝠，很可能在中间宿主中经历了适应性进化，然后通过集中传播源转移到人类身上。人类和动物之间与 2019-nCoV 结合的受体序列的相似性表明，病毒向农场动物传播的物种屏障较低。我们建议，基于“同一个健康”模式，兽医和动物专家应参与跨学科合作，共同抗击这一流行病。