Cambodia bat researchers on mission to track origin of COVID-19

A researcher from the Institut Pasteur du Cambodge takes an oral swab from a bat that was captured at Chhngauk Hill, Thala Borivat District, Steung Treng Province, Cambodia, August 30, 2021. REUTERS/Cindy Liu

STUNG TRENG, Cambodia (Reuters) - Researchers are collecting samples from bats in northern Cambodia in a bid to understand the coronavirus pandemic, returning to a region where a very similar virus was found in the animals a decade ago.

Two samples from horseshoe bats were collected in 2010 in Stung Treng province near Laos and kept in freezers at the Institut Pasteur du Cambodge (IPC) in Phnom Penh.