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Review
. 2021 Apr 7:3:7.
doi: 10.1186/s42522-021-00039-6. eCollection 2021.

Assessing the risks of SARS-CoV-2 in wildlife

R J Delahay  1 , J de la Fuente  2   3 , G C Smith  1 , K Sharun  4 , E L Snary  5 , L Flores Girón  6 , J Nziza  7 , A R Fooks  8 , S M Brookes  8 , F Z X Lean  9 , A C Breed  10   11 , C Gortazar  2
Affiliations
Review

Assessing the risks of SARS-CoV-2 in wildlife

R J Delahay et al. One Health Outlook. .

Abstract

The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 likely emerged from a wildlife source with transmission to humans followed by rapid geographic spread throughout the globe and severe impacts on both human health and the global economy. Since the onset of the pandemic, there have been many instances of human-to-animal transmission involving companion, farmed and zoo animals, and limited evidence for spread into free-living wildlife. The establishment of reservoirs of infection in wild animals would create significant challenges to infection control in humans and could pose a threat to the welfare and conservation status of wildlife. We discuss the potential for exposure, onward transmission and persistence of SARS-CoV-2 in an initial selection of wild mammals (bats, canids, felids, mustelids, great apes, rodents and cervids). Dynamic risk assessment and targeted surveillance are important tools for the early detection of infection in wildlife, and here we describe a framework for collating and synthesising emerging information to inform targeted surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 in wildlife. Surveillance efforts should be integrated with information from public and veterinary health initiatives to provide insights into the potential role of wild mammals in the epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2.

Keywords: Covid-19; Host-switching; Reservoirs; Risk assessment; SARS-CoV-2; Surveillance; Wildlife.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interestsThe authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Potential pathways of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in a multi-host system and sources of data for the assessment of associated risks
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Conceptual framework for the integration of information to inform surveillance for spill over of SARS-CoV-2 infection from humans to wildlife
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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