Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Antibody Reactors Among Camels in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in 2005

Abstract

We tested, using a low starting dilution, sequential serum samples from dromedary camels, sheep and horses collected in Dubai from February/April to October of 2005 and from dromedary camels for export/import testing between Canada and USA in 2000–2001. Using a standard Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) neutralization test, serial sera from three sheep and three horses were all negative while sera from 9 of 11 dromedary camels from Dubai were positive for antibodies supported by similar results in a MERS-CoV recombinant partial spike protein antibody ELISA. The two negative Dubai camels were both dromedary calves and remained negative over the 5 months studied. The six dromedary samples from USA and Canada were negative in both tests. These results support the recent findings that infection with MERS-CoV or a closely related virus is not a new occurrence in camels in the Middle East. Therefore, interactions of MERS-CoV at the human–animal interface may have been ongoing for several, perhaps many, years and by inference, a widespread pandemic may be less likely unless significant evolution of the virus allow accelerated infection and spread potential in the human population.

Seroepidemiology of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus in Saudi Arabia (1993) and Australia (2014) and characterisation of assay specificity

“…Serological evidence of MERS-CoV in dromedaries has been previously reported in archived sera dating back over past decades [7,11,16]. Our data with serological assays that have been demonstrated to be free of cross reaction with BCoV and other CoV’s reconfirms that MERS-CoV was circulating in dromedaries in Saudi Arabia as early as 1993.…”

Middle East respiratory syndrome: An emerging coronavirus infection tracked by the crowd

“…Other animals tested include sheep, cows, pigs, horses, birds, water buffalo, goats, Bactrian camels, llamas and guanaco (south American camelids). Many of these animals have only been tested in small numbers and rats, mice, cats, and baboons (wide-ranging in Saudi Arabia and known to come into contact with humans and travel to caves possibly frequented by bats) have yet to be tested at all (Alagaili et al, 2014;Alexandersen et al, 2014;Meyer et al, 2014b;Perera et al, 2013;Reusken et al, 2013b,c). In a large study of 1053 sera from equids (horses, donkeys and mules) from the UAE and Spain, none harboured signs of neutralising antibody against MERS-CoV (Meyer et al, 2015).…”

“…Initially, serological tools were employed and cautious analysis reported positive DCs as being seropositive to MERS-CoV, or a closely related virus (Alexandersen et al, 2014;Perera et al, 2013;Reusken et al, 2013c). Subsequently, diagnostic detection of MERS-CoV RNA and recovery of infectious virus has occurred from DC samples (Alagaili et al, 2014;Azhar et al, 2014a;Chu et al, 2014;Haagmans et al, 2014;Hemida et al, 2014a;Nowotny and Kolodziejek, 2014;Raj et al, 2014a) and from some of these, the full or majority length genomes of MERS-CoV have been sequenced Haagmans et al, 2014;Hemida et al, 2014a).…”

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus: current knowledge and future considerations

“…In camels testing positive for MERS-CoV, juvenile dromedary camels are often virus-positive, while older camels are more likely to be seropositive and virus-negative (25,27,(31)(32)(33). Serological studies have also indicated that camels can be the natural hosts of MERS-CoV infections, which were established long before the first human MERS-CoV cases were identified (26,28,34,35).…”