SARS-CoV-2 in fruit bats, ferrets, pigs, and chickens: an experimental transmission study
Funding
German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
"We searched PubMed and bioRxiv for articles using the search terms “SARS-CoV-2”, or “COVID-19”, and “animal model”, or “ferret”, or “bat”, or “pig”, or “chicken”, for articles published in English between inception and April 10, 2020. Little information is available on whether severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can infect animals and whether some species have the potential of becoming epidemiological animal reservoirs or could represent suitable animal models for testing vaccines and antiviral drugs. Infection of ferrets and cats by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) has been shown. Field infections of pigs were also reported, whereas poultry did not appear to be affected. For SARS-CoV, non-human primate and ferret models were used."
"our study, as well as the report by Shi and colleagues,
found no susceptibility of pigs by the intranasal inoculation route. Nevertheless, we showed permissiveness of two out of three porcine cell lines tested. The young age of the pigs might have had an influence as an age dependency has been found in other animals—eg, monkeys. To further exclude an anthropozoonotic spill-over infection into farm animals, further experiments should focus on Bovidae or other animals, which are predicted to be susceptible according to cell culture data."
found no susceptibility of pigs by the intranasal inoculation route. Nevertheless, we showed permissiveness of two out of three porcine cell lines tested. The young age of the pigs might have had an influence as an age dependency has been found in other animals—eg, monkeys. To further exclude an anthropozoonotic spill-over infection into farm animals, further experiments should focus on Bovidae or other animals, which are predicted to be susceptible according to cell culture data."
