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. 2020 Jun;25(25):2001122.
doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.25.2001122.

SARS-CoV-2 does not replicate in embryonated hen's eggs or in MDCK cell lines

Ian G Barr  1   2   3 , Cleve Rynehart  1 , Paul Whitney  1   2 , Julian Druce  4
Affiliations

SARS-CoV-2 does not replicate in embryonated hen's eggs or in MDCK cell lines

Ian G Barr et al. Euro Surveill. 2020 Jun.

Abstract

The advent of COVID-19, has posed a risk that human respiratory samples containing human influenza viruses may also contain SARS-CoV-2. This potential risk may lead to SARS-CoV-2 contaminating conventional influenza vaccine production platforms as respiratory samples are used to directly inoculate embryonated hen's eggs and continuous cell lines that are used to isolate and produce influenza vaccines. We investigated the ability of these substrates to propagate SARS-CoV-2 and found that neither could support SARS-CoV-2 replication.

Keywords: Influenza, SARS-CoV-2, vaccine, respiratory, air-borne infections, viral infections, influenza; severe acute respiratory syndrome – SARS, influenza virus, biosafety, vaccines and immunisation, laboratory.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: None declared.

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