Coronavirus: Trade Minister Simon Birmingham denies knowledge of investigations into Wuhan scientists who worked in Australia

Simon Bimingham denies knowledge of intelligence agencies investigating Chinese scientists who studied bats in Australia.

Peng Zhou, the head of the Bat Virus Infection and Immunity Project at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, worked at the Australian Animal Health Laboratory.

Trade Minister Simon Birmingham has denied any knowledge of an investigation by Western intelligence agencies into two Chinese scientists who studied bats in Australia as part of a larger inquiry into the origin of coronavirus.

“Obviously we want to see a transparent investigation into the matter,” Senator Birmingham said on ABC Radio National.

“I don’t and the government does not comment on national security or intelligence matters, that is a long standing practice. I am not aware of any investigation and I wouldn’t comment on them even if I were,” he said.

“However, we want to see transparent investigations into the causes so that we can prevent repeats of such pandemics into the future.”

The Daily Telegraph reported that the two Chinese scientists — who Western intelligence agencies are focusing on as part of an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus — studied bats in Australia in research jointly funded by the Australian and Chinese governments.

The Five Eyes intelligence agencies of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Britain and the US are examining the work of a scientist at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Peng Zhou, as they investigate whether COVID-19 originated from a wet market or whether it may have been released from a laboratory in Wuhan that was studying coronavirus pathogens from bats, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Dr Zhou, the head of the Bat Virus Infection and Immunity Project at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, worked at the Australian Animal Health Laboratory — a bio-containment facility — between 2011 and 2014, where he was sent by China to complete his doctorate.

During this time, he arranged for bats to be transported alive by air from Queensland to the Australian Animal Health Laboratory in Victoria where they were euthanised for dissection and studied for deadly viruses.

The Daily Telegraph reports that his work was funded jointly by the CSIRO and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

It examined bat immunology and the role of interferons and how “bats are rich reservoirs for emerging viruses, including many that are highly pathogenic to humans and other mammals” and “many of which cause significant morbidity and mortality in humans and other mammals”.

Shi Zhengli, who is the director of the Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Wuhan Institute of Virology, visited Australia in 2006.

Such research is designed to prevent the next pandemic by understanding how viruses can be transmitted from bats to humans.

But the work is considered highly risky and there have been fears in recent years that any inadvertent leak could cause a pandemic.

The other scientist being looked at is Shi Zhengli, who is the director of the Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The Daily Telegraph reports that Dr Zhengli was in Australia as a visiting scientist from February 22 to May 21, 2006, during which time she worked at the CSIRO’s Australian Animal Health Laboratory. She used faecal samples of horseshoe bats to identify that they were the natural host for SARS-like coronaviruses.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology. Picture: Supplied

There was no suggestion the two scientists were responsible for the outbreak, only that they had come to the attention of intelligence agencies.

The CSIRO and the Australian Animal Health Laboratory have collaborated with China in numerous jointly-funded research projects into bat diseases, with scientists travelling back and forth between the two laboratories.

A CSIRO spokesman told The Daily Telegraph that it had partnered with China in “excellent research and development for over 40 years”.

“The suggestion bat research is dangerous without context … is misleading and irresponsible,” he said.

“Research into bats underpins much of our understanding of zoonotic diseases. CSIRO undertakes due diligence and takes security very seriously.”