WHO inspectors say it is too early to make a link to the outbreak in Guangzhou
World Health Organisation inspectors have found the Sars virus in civet cat cages at the Guangzhou restaurant where a woman suspected of having the disease worked, officials said yesterday.
But, as they ended a week-long inspection of the province, they said they would not recommend a travel advisory for Guangdong.
Robert Breiman, an American expert on emerging diseases heading the team, said finding the virus in the cages 'doesn't necessarily prove anything, but is consistent with the concept the civets were there and carried the Sars virus'.
'We still do not know exactly what role the civet cat played in the process of transmitting Sars and Sars-like illness,' he said.
'We don't know if there might be other avenues, including the civet cat, [that transmit the virus to] humans. It is certainly possible that there is a role for other animals, including rodents.' He added that more studies needed to be done.
Dr Breiman said tests found the coronavirus in cages in a restaurant where one of the suspected patients was a waitress, and from cages in an animal market.