追踪病毒源头
Scientists have learned a great deal about how the novel coronavirus spreads.
关于新型冠状病毒如何传播，科学家已经了解了很多。
But one of the mysteries they're still trying to untangle is where the virus, known as SARS-CoV-2, came from in the first place.
但他们仍在试图解开的一个谜团是，这种被称为SARS-CoV-2的病毒最初是从哪里来的。
Scientific evidence points overwhelmingly to wildlife — and to bats as the most likely origin point.
科学证据压倒性地指向野生动物——而蝙蝠是最有可能的起源点。
Bats are critically important for pollinating flowers and dispersing seeds.
蝙蝠在授粉和传播种子方面起着至关重要的作用。
They catch bugs, the same ones that bite us and eat some of our crops.
它们还会捕捉虫子，也就是那些会咬我们和吃我们的庄稼的虫子。
But bats also harbor some of the toughest known zoonotic diseases — those caused by germs that spread between animals and people.
但是蝙蝠也携带有一些已知的最严重的人畜共患疾病——那些由在动物和人之间传播的细菌引起的疾病。
The rabies virus, the Marburg virus, the Hendra and Nipah viruses all find a natural reservoir in bats, meaning those viruses can live in bats without harming them.
狂犬病毒、马尔堡病毒、亨德拉病毒和尼帕病毒都在蝙蝠体内找到了天然宿主，这意味着这些病毒可以在不伤害蝙蝠的情况下在蝙蝠体内存活。
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa was traced to a bat colony.
西非爆发的埃博拉病毒可以追溯到一个蝙蝠种群。
The SARS virus originates in bats, along with other coronaviruses.
非典病毒和其它冠状病毒也起源于蝙蝠。
And now, SARS-CoV-2 is linked to bats too.
如今的新冠病毒也跟蝙蝠有关。
The virus has a 96% genetic similarity to coronavirus samples previously found in bats.
这种病毒与之前在蝙蝠体内发现的冠状病毒样本有96%的基因相似性。
Globally, zoonotic diseases have been on the rise for decades.
在全球范围内，人畜共患病几十年来一直呈上升趋势。
The CDC estimates that six out of ten infectious diseases in people come from animals.
美国疾病控制与预防中心估计，十分之六的人类传染病都来自动物。
Increased human interactions with animals through land development that destroys habitat, agricultural practices and livestock and wildlife trade have created a perfect storm for emerging diseases to appear throughout the world, pathogens both previously known and completely novel.
人类与动物之间的互动不断增加，土地开发破坏了动物的栖息地，破坏了农业生产，破坏了牲畜和野生动物的交易，这些都为新出现的疾病在全世界的传播带来了一场巨大的风暴，这些疾病包括以前已知的和全新的病原体。
There is not enough genetic evidence to know how precisely this particular coronavirus transmitted from animals (likely bats) to humans, and whether an intermediate animal was involved in the chain of transmission.
目前还没有足够的遗传证据来明确这种特定的冠状病毒是如何从动物(可能是蝙蝠)传播到人类的，以及是否有一种中间动物参与了传播链。
Further genetic testing and evidence is needed to fully know where this coronavirus came from.
需要进一步的基因检测和证据来充分了解这种冠状病毒的来源。
The work of virus hunting — of tracking an outbreak to its origin point — can take years.
寻找病毒的工作——追踪病毒爆发的源头——可能需要数年时间。
The 2003 outbreak of SARS, for instance, took a decade of detective work, sampling the feces, urine, or blood of thousands of horseshoe bats across China until a match was found.
例如，2003年爆发的非典(SARS)，就花了10年的时间，对我国各地数千只马蹄形蝙蝠的粪便、尿液或血液进行采样，直到找到匹配的样本。
问题
文中提到寻找病毒源头可能需要多长时间？
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