ABSTRACT
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has affected millions of people worldwide since its emergence in 2019. The current global pandemic was driven by human-to-human transmission. Knowing the zoonotic origin of the disease and the potential capacity of the virus to adapt to other species, it is important to understand the extent of natural SARS-CoV-2 infection of animals, in particular cats and dogs in households that are in direct contact with their owners. Hong Kong and Seoul are two of the most densely-populated urban cities in Asia, where companion animals often live in close contact with humans. In this study, we screened sera from 1,040 cats and 855 dogs during the early phase of the pandemic in Hong Kong and Seoul for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies by using an ELISA that detects antibodies against the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the viral spike protein. Sera testing positive on ELISA were also tested for the presence of neutralizing antibodies using a surrogate virus neutralization (sVNT) and plaque reduction neutralization test (PRNT). Among feline sera, 4.51% and 2.54% of samples from Korea and Hong Kong, respectively, tested ELISA positive. However only 1.64% of samples from Korea and 0.18% from Hong Kong tested positive by sVNT, while only 0.41% of samples from Korea tested positive by PRNT. Among canine samples, 4.94% and 6.46% from Korea and Hong Kong, respectively, tested positive by ELISA, while only 0.29% sera from Korea were positive on sVNT and no canine sera tested positive by PRNT. These results confirm a low seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 exposure in companion animals in Korea and Hong Kong. The discordance between RBD-ELISA and neutralization tests may indicate possible ELISA cross-reactivity with other coronaviruses, especially in canine sera.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Severe Acute Respiratory SyndromeABSTRACT
ABSTRACT Bats are important reservoirs for viruses of public health and veterinary concern. Virus studies in Australian bats usually target the families Paramyxoviridae, Coronaviridae and Rhabdoviridae , with little known about their overall virome composition. We used metatranscriptomic sequencing to characterise the faecal virome of grey-headed flying foxes from three colonies in urban/suburban locations from two Australian states. We identified viruses from three mammalian-infecting ( Coronaviridae, Caliciviridae, Retroviridae ) and one possible mammalian-infecting ( Birnaviridae ) family. Of particular interest were a novel bat betacoronavirus (subgenus Nobecovirus ) and a novel bat sapovirus ( Caliciviridae ), the first identified in Australian bats, as well as a potentially exogenous retrovirus. The novel betacoronavirus was detected in two sampling locations 1,375 km apart and falls in a viral lineage likely with a long association with bats. This study highlights the utility of unbiased sequencing of faecal samples for identifying novel viruses and revealing broad-scale patterns of virus ecology and evolution.
ABSTRACT
Feline panleukopenia (FPL) is a severe, often fatal disease caused by feline parvovirus (FPV). How infection with FPV might impact the composition of the entire eukaryotic enteric virome in cats has not been characterized. We used metatranscriptomic and viral particle enrichment metagenomic approaches to characterize the enteric viromes of 23 cats naturally infected with FPV (FPV-cases) and 36 age-matched healthy shelter cats (healthy controls). Sequencing reads were detected from 11 mammalian infecting viral families mostly belonging to Coronaviridae, Parvoviridae and Astroviridae . Among the healthy control cats the most abundant viruses were Feline coronavirus, Mamastrovirus 2 and Carnivore bocaparvovirus 3 (Feline bocavirus 1) with frequent co-infections of all three. Feline chaphamaparvovirus was only detected in healthy controls (6/36, 16.7%). Among the FPV-cases, in addition to FPV, the most abundant viruses were Mamastrovirus 2 , Feline coronavirus and Carnivore bocaparvovirus 4 (Feline bocaparvovirus 2). The latter and Feline bocaparvovirus 3 were detected significantly more frequently in FPV-cases than in healthy controls. Feline calicivirus was present in a high proportion of FPV-cases (11/23, 47.8%) compared to healthy controls (5/36, 13.9%, p=0.0067). Feline kobuvirus infections were also common among FPV-cases (9/23, 39.1%) and were not detected in any healthy control cats (p<0.0001). While abundant in both groups, astroviruses were more frequently present in FPV-cases (19/23, 82.6%) than in healthy controls (18/36, p=0.0142). The differences in eukaryotic virome composition found in this study indicate that further investigations to determine associations between enteric viral co-infections on clinical disease severity in cats with FPL are warranted.