Scientists from Saudi Arabia and the United States have found DNA matching the MERS coronavirus in a sample taken from a bat in Saudi Arabia.

The scientists reported the finding in a paper published online Wednesday. This the first time a DNA match for the human virus has been found in samples taken from an animal.

Lead author Dr. Ziad Memish, the Saudi deputy minister of health, says bats have always been suspected to be the original source of the virus, but there are probably other players of the chain of transmission that haven't yet been discovered.

"There must be something in the middle," Memish said during a talk on MERS in Washington that was organized and webcast by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Center for Health Security.

"Is it food? Is it (an) other animal reservoir? That's something to be determined."

The article outlining the finding is published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, a publication of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. It was reported by scientists from the Saudi Ministry of Health, Columbia University and the organization EcoHealth Alliance.

The viral DNA was found in a fecal swab taken from a Taphozous perforatus bat -- also known as an Egyptian tomb bat, says Dr. Ian Lipkin, head of Columbia University's Center for Infection and Immunity. Lipkin's lab, famous for finding new viruses, played a lead role in this work.

The bat was among many found roosting in ruins near where the first known Saudi MERS case lived, at Bisha. The man, who died in June 2012, was the case which brought the existence of the new virus to light -- though it was later found that earlier cases had occurred in Jordan in April of that year.

Lipkin says this type of bat is an insect eater. They are frequently found close to fruit trees because the fruit draws insects.

Other scientists recently reported finding antibodies to MERS or a closely related coronavirus in camels in Oman and in the Canary Islands, off North Africa. While that is a clue that the animals are susceptible to the virus, it's not yet known if they play a role in spreading the virus to people.

Lipkin's lab has been testing samples from camels and other animals from Saudi Arabia. He says his group has a paper looking at the possible role of camels that should be published soon.

To date there have been 96 confirmed cases of MERS and 46 of those infections have ended in death.

All cases to date have originated from four Middle Eastern countries -- Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. MERS infections have also been diagnosed in Britain, France, Italy, Tunisia and Germany. But in these instances the virus was brought into the country by someone who had travelled in the Middle East before getting sick or who travelled to Europe by air ambulance seeking care.