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. 2014 Jun 12;19(23):20828.
doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.es2014.19.23.20828.

Seroepidemiology of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus in Saudi Arabia (1993) and Australia (2014) and characterisation of assay specificity

M G Hemida  1 , R A Perera, R A Al Jassim, G Kayali, L Y Siu, P Wang, K W Chu, S Perlman, M A Ali, A Alnaeem, Y Guan, L L Poon, L Saif, M Peiris
Affiliations

Seroepidemiology of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus in Saudi Arabia (1993) and Australia (2014) and characterisation of assay specificity

M G Hemida et al. Euro Surveill. .

Abstract

The pseudoparticle virus neutralisation test (ppNT) and a conventional microneutralisation (MN) assay are specific for detecting antibodies to Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) when used in seroepidemiological studies in animals. Genetically diverse MERS-CoV appear antigenically similar in MN tests. We confirm that MERS-CoV was circulating in dromedaries in Saudi Arabia in 1993. Preliminary data suggest that feral Australian dromedaries may be free of MERS-CoV but larger confirmatory studies are needed.

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