*3.2.1 Bats and pangolins*

At the beginning of the pandemic bats were declared as the possible SARS-CoV-2 reservoir because of the genomic similarities with other coronaviruses infecting bats [9]. During the initial molecular epidemiological investigations, it was found the SARS-CoV-2 genome had similarities with coronaviruses isolated in *Rhinolophus* bats [10]. In Cambodia, a coronavirus with 93% genomic similarities was detected in horseshoe bats *Rhinolophus shameli*, but this specific bat species does not reside at the location of original SARS-CoV-2 outbreak [11, 12]. Similarly, 200 novel coronaviruses have been identified among bats worldwide [13]. Furthermore, bats are reservoirs for other emerging pathogens like Ebola, Nipah, rabies, Hendra, and rotaviruses [14]. Nevertheless, there are three events contradicting the hypothesis that bats were the initial reservoir from which SARS-CoV-2 jumped into other species: 1) during the beginning of the pandemic bats were hibernating; 2) bats were not sold at the animal market during the initial outbreak; and 3) although other bat coronaviruses have up to 96% genomic similarities, SARS-CoV-2 has not been detected among bat species [15].

The fist isolated variant of SARS-CoV-2 was identified as pangolin-CoV because of similarities with coronaviruses isolated in the carcasses of Malayan pangolins *Manis javanica* [16]. SARS-CoV-2 has 89% nucleotide and 98% amino acid similarities with the pangolin coronavirus genome [17]. Moreover, recent investigations done in other pangolin species conclude the pangolin coronavirus can be the precursor of SARS-CoV-2 because of their high genetic variation and given no coronaviruses were found in pre-COVID-19 pangolin samples [18].
