Coronavirus Infections in Companion Animals: Virology, Epidemiology, Clinical and Pathologic Features

Abstract

Coronaviruses are enveloped RNA viruses capable of causing respiratory, enteric, or systemic diseases in a variety of mammalian hosts that vary in clinical severity from subclinical to fatal. The host range and tissue tropism are largely determined by the coronaviral spike protein, which initiates cellular infection by promoting fusion of the viral and host cell membranes. Companion animal coronaviruses responsible for causing enteric infection include feline enteric coronavirus, ferret enteric coronavirus, canine enteric coronavirus, equine coronavirus, and alpaca enteric coronavirus, while canine respiratory coronavirus and alpaca respiratory coronavirus result in respiratory infection. Ferret systemic coronavirus and feline infectious peritonitis virus, a mutated feline enteric coronavirus, can lead to lethal immuno-inflammatory systemic disease. Recent human viral pandemics, including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), and most recently, COVID-19, all thought to originate from bat coronaviruses, demonstrate the zoonotic potential of coronaviruses and their potential to have devastating impacts. A better understanding of the coronaviruses of companion animals, their capacity for cross-species transmission, and the sharing of genetic information may facilitate improved prevention and control strategies for future emerging zoonotic coronaviruses. This article reviews the clinical, epidemiologic, virologic, and pathologic characteristics of nine important coronaviruses of companion animals.

Serologic Screening of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infection in Cats and Dogs during First Coronavirus Disease Wave, the Netherlands

“…Serum samples from the pre–COVID-19 cohort were tested against SARS-CoV-2 antigens to screen for potential cross-reactive antibodies elicited by endemic coronaviruses in cats and dogs because they are natural reservoirs of several coronaviruses (i.e., FCoV [genus Alphacoronavirus ] in cats, canine coronavirus [CCoV; genus Alphacoronavirus ] and CRCoV [genus Betacoronavirus ] in dogs) ( 20 , 22 , 23 ). We summarized sequence identities of SARS-CoV-2 antigens used and matching endemic coronavirus antigens ( Table 1 ).…”

Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) exposure in pet cats and dogs in Minnesota, USA

“…However, SARS-CoV-2 (a betacoronavirus) and FCoVs (alphacoronaviruses) are taxonomically distant and their N proteins share only 26% amino acid identity and 44% amino acid similarity. Regardless, in order to evaluate the potential seroprevalence of FCoVs in our cat sera and to determine the potential cross-reactivity of the coronavirus antibodies, we used commercial [43,44], and is at a much higher percentage than that of antibodies against the SARS-CoV -2's N protein (7.9%). Taken together, these data suggest that the SARS-CoV-2 N-based ELISA can specifically detect N-specific IgG antibodies that are unlikely to be cross-reactive with the anti-FCoV antibodies in these cats.…”

Molecular survey of parvovirus, astrovirus, coronavirus, and calicivirus in symptomatic dogs

“…A new strain of CCoV-IIa (CB/05) has been shown to be able to cause a fatal disease characterised by systemic spread of the virus (Decaro et al 2008a ), and in recent years, an increasing number of reports of infections by this new highly virulent pantropic virus (pCCoV) have also been documented in puppies and in a wolf. Infection is characterised by fatal multisystemic illness with lethargy, inappetence, vomiting, haemorrhagic diarrhoea, lymphopenia, ataxia, and seizures (Alfano et al 2019 ; Haake et al 2020 ; Licitra et al 2014 ). However, several studies have demonstrated that this pantropic strain can also associate to subclinical infections and/or to the decrease of lymphocyte counts, rather than to severe clinical signs and death (Marinaro et al 2010 ).…”