SARS (Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome) caused panic around the world when the World Health Organization issued a global alert in early 2003. Very little was known about this virus that causes high fever, generalized discomfort, aches all over, chills, and in some cases sore throat, runny nose, dry cough, shortness of breath, and diarrhea. For some, the respiratory distress can be more serious and become life threatening, requiring mechanical ventilation.

After SARS broke out, scientists wanted to know where this virus originated. Finding the origin of a virus is important in understanding its biology and also helps in developing ways to prevent its spread.

When SARS first broke out in China, scientists looking for the virus’ origin initially determined that the reservoir host was the civet cat, an animal with a cat-like appearance that lives in Southern China. The civet cat is eaten as a delicacy in Southern China. The reservoir host is the animal that harbors a pathogen, allowing it to survive, but does not get sick from it. This allows the pathogen to be transmitted to the primary host, the host in which the pathogen is able to reproduce and cause disease. Pathogens need these hosts so they can infect the primary host, so determining the reservoir host is important in containing the spread of disease. As a result of this information, thousands of civet cats were killed to prevent any new outbreaks of SARS. But further studies determined that the reservoir host for SARS was the Chinese horseshoe bat, and they passed on it on to both civets and humans.