Aug 09, 2013 03:09 PM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

Scientists believe they have tracked the source of Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome, or MERS, to camels, CBS News reported.

A couple weeks ago, a study in the Lancet Infectious Diseases stated MERS was not the dangerous health pandemic that SARS was. Still a threat to many, scientists have been actively seeking the source and a cure.

The new study, published in the same journal, does not say for sure, but tests have shown that MERS, or a very similar disease, has been circulating within dromedary, or one-hump, camels.

The virus was identified in September of last year and has caused 94 illnesses, including 46 deaths, since, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Most of those cases have been reported in Saudi Arabia, but others have been found in France, Italy, Jordan, Qatar, Tunisia, the U.K. and United Arab Emirates.

In 50 blood samples from camels in Oman, all were found to have antibodies of MERS. That does not prove they had the disease, but it proves the camels once had the virus, or a similar one, before the antibodies fought it off. Only 15 of 105 Spanish camels were positive for MERS antibodies. No such antibodies were found in cows, sheep or goats.

"Finding the (MERS) virus is like finding a needle in a haystack, but finding the antibodies at least gives you an indication of where to look," said Marion Koopmans, chief of virology at the Netherlands' National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, the study's senior author. "What this tells us is that there's something circulating in camels that looks darned similar to MERS."

In most cases of MERS, patients had prior contact with an animal, but scientists could not figure out which was the problematic one. The study only resulted in preliminary results and now more work is left to be done to definitively find the source of the disease.

"It is a smoking gun, but it is not definitive proof," Koopmans told BBC News.

Health officials said finding the source is important, but the priority is understanding how and why it infects humans.

"Only if we know what actions and interactions by humans lead to infection, can we work to prevent these infections," Gregory Hartl, from the World Health Organization, said.

The previous study said it was not yet at the stage of becoming a global threat and the current one agreed. Data still suggests it is not a danger to spread and can still be halted in a solution is found soon.

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