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Review
. 2021 Apr;54(2):175-181.
doi: 10.1016/j.jmii.2020.06.006. Epub 2020 Jun 25.

SARS-CoV-2 host diversity: An update of natural infections and experimental evidence

Md Golzar Hossain  1 , Aneela Javed  2 , Sharmin Akter  3 , Sukumar Saha  4
Affiliations
Review

SARS-CoV-2 host diversity: An update of natural infections and experimental evidence

Md Golzar Hossain et al. J Microbiol Immunol Infect. 2021 Apr.

Abstract

Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is now a pandemic threat. This virus is supposed to be spread by human to human transmission. Cellular angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is the receptor of SARS-CoV-2 which is identical or similar in different species of animals such as pigs, ferrets, cats, orangutans, monkeys, and humans. Moreover, a recent study predicted that dogs might be secondary hosts during the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 from bat to human. Therefore, there is a possibility of spreading SARS-CoV-2 through domestic pets. There are now many reports of SARS-CoV-2 positive cases in dogs, cats, tigers, lion, and minks. Experimental data showed ferrets and cats are highly susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 as infected by virus inoculation and can transmit the virus directly or indirectly by droplets or airborne routes. Based on these natural infection reports and experimental data, whether the pets are responsible for SARS-CoV-2 spread to humans; needs to be deeply investigated. Humans showing clinical symptoms of respiratory infections have been undergoing for the COVID-19 diagnostic test but many infected people and few pets confirmed with SARS-CoV-2 remained asymptomatic. In this review, we summarize the natural cases of SARS-CoV-2 in animals with the latest researches conducted in this field. This review will be helpful to think insights of SARS-CoV-2 transmissions, spread, and demand for seroprevalence studies, especially in companion animals.

Keywords: Animals; COVID-19; Pets; SARS-CoV-2; Transmission.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Figure 1
Host range of SARS-CoV-2. Different pets/animals are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 might be occurred naturally and/or experimentally.
Fig. 2
Figure 2
Evolutionary relationship of SARS-CoV-2 isolates of dog, cat, tiger, human, bat, and pangolin. The genome sequences were retrieved from the GISAID. The sequences were aligned and the phylogenetic tree was constructed using MEGA X version 10.1.8. The neighbor-joining algorithm was used with 1,000 replicates of bootstrap analysis to build the tree.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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