Can Companion Animals Become Infected With Covid-19?

The Veterinary Record
Volume 186, Issue 12, Pages 388-389

Almendros, Angel

Introduction

The veterinary community has been following the evolution of the global pandemic of Covid-19 to identify risks to animals and possible zoonotic transmission. With some exceptions, most coronavirus (CoV) infections in domestic animals are predominantly associated with gastrointestinal disease. Their genetic diversity and variety of hosts are likely to be connected to their high mutation frequency and their RNA instability. This makes CoVs a public health concern with future outbreaks being predicted.

Keywords

Ethics, social science, economics

Towards our understanding of SARS-CoV, an emerging and devastating but quickly conquered virus

Comparative Immunology, Microbiology and Infectious Diseases
Volume 30, Issues 5–6, September 2007, Pages 309-327

Youjun Feng, George F. Gao.

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a newly emerging infectious disease caused by a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV), which has overwhelmed more than 30 countries claiming nearly 8400 cases with over 800 fatalities. Thanks to the unprecedented international collaboration, the whole-genomes of SARS-CoVs were successfully deciphered shortly after the identification of the causative pathogen for outbreak of SARS in southern China, in 2003. Hitherto, the SARS-CoV, as a viral paradigm of emerging infectious entities, has been extensively studied that has ranged from epidemiology, molecular virology/immunology to structural genomics. Also, several lines of breakthroughs have been record-brokenly obtained, that included the finding of ACE2, a functional receptor for the SARS-CoV, solution of the 3CLpro structure, a first crystal structure of SARS-related macromolecules, revealing of bats as natural reservoirs for SARS-like viruses and the possible involvement of civet cats in the SARS emergence. This review intends to outline the major progress in the journey of SARS-related exploration, by emphasizing those inaugurated studies with milestone-like significance contributed by Chinese research groups.

Keywords

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Coronavirus (CoV), SARS-CoV, Molecular epidemiology, Natural reservoir, Receptor, T cell immunity, CTL epitopes, Structural genomics

The human SARS-CoV 8b protein is distinct from its counterpart in animal SARS-CoV and down-regulates the expression of the envelope protein in infected cells

Virology
Volume 354, Issue 1, 10 October 2006, Pages 132-142

Choong-Tat Keng, Yook-Wah Choi, Matthijs R.A. Welkers, Daphne Z.L. Chan, Shuo Shen, Seng Gee Lim, Wanjin Hong, Yee-Joo Tan.

Abstract

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), isolated from humans infected during the peak of epidemic, encodes two accessory proteins termed as 8a and 8b. Interestingly, the SARS-CoV isolated from animals contains an extra 29-nucleotide in this region such that these proteins are fused to become a single protein, 8ab. Here, we compared the cellular properties of the 8a, 8b and 8ab proteins by examining their cellular localizations and their abilities to interact with other SARS-CoV proteins. These results may suggest that the conformations of 8a and 8b are different from 8ab although nearly all the amino acids in 8a and 8b are found in 8ab. In addition, the expression of the structural protein, envelope (E), was down-regulated by 8b but not 8a or 8ab. Consequently, E was not detectable in SARS-CoV-infected cells that were expressing high levels of 8b. These findings suggest that 8b may modulate viral replication and/or pathogenesis.

Keywords

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Coronavirus (CoV), Accessory proteins, Envelope (E) protein, 8a, 8b, 8ab