The endangered pangolin may be the link that facilitated the spread of the novel coronavirus across China, Chinese scientists said on Friday.
Researchers have long suspected that the virus, which has now killed more than 630 people and infected some 31,000, was passed from an animal to a human at a market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.
Researchers at the South China Agricultural University have identified the scaly mammal as a "potential intermediate host," the university said in a statement, without providing further details.
The new virus is believed to have originated in bats, but researchers have suggested there could have been an "intermediate host" in the transmission to humans.
After testing more than 1,000 samples from wild animals, scientists from the university found the genome sequences of viruses found on pangolins to be 99 percent identical to those on coronavirus patients, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
The pangolin is considered the most trafficked animal on the planet and more than one million have been snatched from Asian and African forests in the past decade, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
They are destined for markets in China and Vietnam, where their scales are used in traditional medicine - despite having no medical benefits - and their meat is bought on the black market.
Global shortage of anti-virus masks: WHO chief
The world is running out of masks and other protective equipment against the novel coronavirus, the World Health Organization chief warned on Friday.
"The world is facing a chronic shortage of personal protective equipment," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the WHO's executive board in Geneva.
He said he would be speaking to members of the supply chain network for protective gear to try and resolve "bottlenecks" in the production.
Earlier this week WHO said that it had started sending masks, gloves, respirators, protective isolation gowns and test kits to countries requiring assistance.
Tedros also said some countries were still failing to share clinical data on confirmed cases of the virus.
"We urge those member states to share that information immediately," he said.
"No one country or organisation can stop this outbreak alone. Our best hope and our only hope is to work together.
"We have a common enemy which is dangerous and which can bring serious upheaval, social, political and economic. This is the time to fight it and in unison," he said.
Tedros also pointed out that for the past two days the number of reported cases of the virus had declined.
He said this was "good news but we caution against reading too much into that - the numbers could go up again".