Detection and characterization of bovine-like coronaviruses from four species of zoo ruminants

Abstract

Five coronaviruses (CoVs) were detected in diarrheal feces from four zoo ruminant species: one wisent (Bison bonasus), two Himalayan tahr (Hemitragus jemlahicus), one sitatunga (Tragelaphus spekii), and one nyala (Tragelaphus angasii). We sequenced and analyzed the spike (S) and hemagglutinin/esterase (HE) genes of these viruses and compared the nucleotide (nt) and deduced amino acid (aa) sequences with those of other bovine CoV (BcoV) strains. Comparison of the entire deduced aa sequences of the S and HE glycoproteins revealed no specific differences that would account for discrimination between bovine-like CoV strains from zoo ruminants and BcoVs strains. In addition, the 99.9% aa identity among the five CoV strains revealed that the ruminants were infected by the same strain. Phylogenetically, bovine-like CoVs belong to group 2a CoVs, which are related most closely to the BcoV strains recently isolated in Korea. These data suggest that cattle are potential reservoirs for CoVs that are capable of infecting zoo ruminants.

Molecular and antigenic characterization of bovine Coronavirus circulating in Argentinean cattle during 1994–2010

“…In addition, all the Argentinean strains sequenced grouped separately from Mebus reference strain, which has been used for systematic vaccination of Argentinean cattle (Dr. Parreño, personal communication). Furthermore, Argentinean strains form a well-defined cluster, separate of the other geographical clusters like most of the Brazilian strains as was previously observed (Bidokhti et al, 2012;Chung et al, 2011;Fulton et al, 2013;Martinez et al, 2012;Takiuchi et al, 2008). The length of the branch indicates Argentinean cluster divergence from all the other groups of BCoVs.…”

Comparative molecular epidemiology of two closely related coronaviruses, bovine coronavirus (BCoV) and human coronavirus OC43 (HCoV-OC43), reveals a different evolutionary pattern

“…An additional maximum likelihood tree based on 143 complete sequences of S gene of BCoV, BCoV-like, and HCoV-OC43 from USA, Brazil, South Korea, China, Italy, Swedish, Denmark and France was constructed. To this end, 81S gene sequences from BCoVs and BCoVs-like were added to the previous S gene alignment (Martínez et al, 2012;Beaudeau et al, 2010;Decaro et al, 2009a;Jeong et al, 2005;Zhang et al, 1991;Park et al, 2007;Chung et al, 2011;Park et al, 2006). The accession numbers corresponding to these sequences are provided in Tables S2 and S3 (supplementary material).…”

Isolation and Characterization of Dromedary Camel Coronavirus UAE-HKU23 from Dromedaries of the Middle East: Minimal Serological Cross-Reactivity between MERS Coronavirus and Dromedary Camel Coronavirus UAE-HKU23

“…Results showed distinct codon usage bias and genetic distance for alpaca CoV and DcCoV UAE-HKU23. In fact, alpaca CoV showed much more similar codon usage bias and lower genetic distance to BCoV and other wild ruminant CoVs including water buffalo CoV, giraffe CoV, Himalayan tahr CoV, nyala CoV, sable antelope CoV, sambar deer CoV, sitatunga CoV, waterbuck CoV, wisent CoV, and white-tailed deer CoV than to DcCoV UAE-HKU23 in the RdRp, S, and N genes ( Figure 6 ) [ 10 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 ]. In addition to codon usage and genetic distance, the S protein of DcCoV UAE-HKU23 contains one additional potential N -glycosylation site at amino acid position 492 compared to alpaca CoV (data not shown).…”