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Review
. 2023 Jan;13(1):5.
doi: 10.1007/s13205-022-03416-8. Epub 2022 Dec 11.

Susceptibility of SARS Coronavirus-2 infection in domestic and wild animals: a systematic review

Sudhanarayani S Rao  1 , Krupakar Parthasarathy  1 , Vignesh Sounderrajan  1 , K Neelagandan  2 , Pradeep Anbazhagan  3 , Vaishnavi Chandramouli  3
Affiliations
Review

Susceptibility of SARS Coronavirus-2 infection in domestic and wild animals: a systematic review

Sudhanarayani S Rao et al. 3 Biotech. 2023 Jan.

Abstract

Animals and viruses have constantly been co-evolving under natural circumstances and pandemic like situations. They harbour harmful viruses which can spread easily. In the recent times we have seen pandemic like situations being created as a result of the spread of deadly and fatal viruses. Coronaviruses (CoVs) are one of the wellrecognized groups of viruses. There are four known genera of Coronavirus family namely, alpha (α), beta (β), gamma (γ), and delta (δ). Animals have been infected with CoVs belonging to all four genera. In the last few decades the world has witnessed an emergence of severe acute respiratory syndromes which had created a pandemic like situation such as SARS CoV, MERS-CoV. We are currently in another pandemic like situation created due to the uncontrolled spread of a similar coronavirus namely SARSCoV-2. These findings are based on a small number of animals and do not indicate whether animals can transmit disease to humans. Several mammals, including cats, dogs, bank voles, ferrets, fruit bats, hamsters, mink, pigs, rabbits, racoon dogs, and white-tailed deer, have been found to be infected naturally by the virus. Certain laboratory discoveries revealed that animals such as cats, ferrets, fruit bats, hamsters, racoon dogs, and white-tailed deer can spread the illness to other animals of the same species. This review article gives insights on the current knowledge about SARS-CoV-2 infection and development in animals on the farm and in domestic community and their impact on society.

Keywords: Animal models; Coronaviruses; MERS; Pandemic; SARS CoV-2; Transmission.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interestOn behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Above image shows the possible route of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from animals starting from primary host, then to intermediate and finally to humans and animals. The image was produced using BioRender.com
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Schematic representation of experimental animal model for SARS-CoV-2 with their application in research and development
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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