that it's pretty easy to tell if its been manipulated or not. It's also apparently easy to tell about what time that it jumped species, early-mid October, even seen a precise date.

I know the Chinese have been investigating bats for years - like ten years - going into caves getting samples wearing hazmat outfits so they know/knew what they were getting in to.

I still entertain the idea that someone may have swiped a few bats for sale in markets, that would presume though that they would fetch a pretty good price or maybe said person(s) ate them themselves(?) Complete speculation but it fits. I sure don't remember any comments at the time that they had tested all the animals at the wet market so I'm a little dubious now that they seem to claim they did.