By Amena Bakr and Kate Kelland DOHA/LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have found cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in camels in Qatar, health officials said on Thursday, fuelling speculation that camels might be the animal reservoir that allowed the virus to infect and kill humans. The SARS-like coronavirus, which emerged in the Middle East last year and has killed almost 40 percent of the around 170 people so far infected, was found in three camels in a herd in a barn also linked to two human cases of MERS infection. "The three camels were investigated among a herd of 14 camels, and the samples were collected as part of the epidemiological investigation," Qatar's Supreme Council of Health said in a statement. It added that the two confirmed human cases linked to the barn "have since then recovered." Ab Osterhaus, a professor of virology at the Erasmus Medical Centre in The Netherlands which worked on the camel study, told Reuters the results were confirmed by a range of tests including sequencing and antibody testing.
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