Assessing the risks of SARS-CoV-2 in wildlife

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.

Investigating the Presence of SARS CoV-2 in Free-Living and Captive Animals

“…Furthermore, risk assessments, developing preparedness measures, and implementing wildlife and public health protection measures are highly important. This is possible only through the One Health platform [ 55 ].…”

SARS-CoV-2 in animals: potential for unknown reservoir hosts and public health implications

“…SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in the oropharyngeal and rectal swabs collected from 6 of 71 ferrets (8.4%) using a RT-qPCR assay. SARS-CoV-2 was also isolated from the rectal swab collected from one of the ferrets (Gortazar et al 2021). In another study, the presence of SARS-CoV-2 specific antibodies were evaluated in the household ferrets sampled in Spain using an in-house ELISA based on spike protein RBD (Giner et al 2021).…”

“…Ferrets are considered pets in some parts of the world. Furthermore, they are also used as hunting/working animals for rabbit control (Gortazar et al 2021). Considering the susceptibility of rabbits to SARS-CoV-2 under experimental condition (Mykytyn et al 2021), further studies are required to investigate the potential of interspecies transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from infected ferrets to wild rabbits during hunting.…”

“…Experimental inoculation has identified cats (Felis catus), ferrets (Mustela putorius furo), raccoon dogs (Nyctereutes porcyonoides), hamsters, rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), whitetailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus), and fruit bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus) to be susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 (Freuling et al 2020;Muñoz-Fontela et al 2020;Shi et al 2020;Younes et al 2020;Mallapaty 2020a). Natural infections of SARS-CoV-2 have been reported in pet dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) and cats, tigers (Panthera tigris), snow leopards (Panthera uncia), pumas (Puma concolor), gorillas (Gorilla gorilla), and lions (Panthera leo) at zoos, and farmed mink (Neovison vison) and ferrets (Mustela putorius furo) (Figure 1) (Hobbs and Reid 2020;Jo et al 2020;Mallapaty 2020a;Gortazar et al 2021). It is necessary to identify those animal species that are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection since they may act as bridge hosts or virus reservoirs and transmit the infection to human beings.…”

Evaluating wildlife markets for pandemic disease risk

“…Science-based tools are necessary to evaluate the risks associated with the consumption and interaction with commonly traded wildlife taxa for zoonotic disease risk based on the probability of hosting or serving as intermediate hosts for viruses that have the potential to cause a pandemic or more localised epidemics. 6 , 7 Bats, pangolins, primates, viverrids, mustelids, canids, felids, and rodents are known to be high-risk primary and intermediate hosts. 6 Crowding large numbers of animals in stressful conditions and transporting them through long trade chains can amplify viral loads and shedding.…”