Animal coronaviruses, interspecies transmission and zoonotic potential. (Covid-19 özel sayi.) [Turkish]

ABSTRACT

Coronaviruses (CoV) are known to be important pathogens of humans and vertebrates. These viruses can cause respiratory, gastrointestinal and central nervous system infections in humans, animals, birds, bats, mice and many wild animals. Lung-related forms such as bronchitis and pneumonia are more severe than a mild cold-like clinical feature in humans. After the SARS epidemics in 2002 and MERS in 2012, the possibility of CoV transmission from animals to humans (zoonotic CoVs) has been proven. In December 2019, a pneumonia epidemic that started in Wuhan, China and whose cause is unknown, spread worldwide. In January 2020, this virus was identified as the new type of Coronavirus 2019 (nCoV-19) by the World Health Organization (WHO), and in February 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared this epidemic a global emergency, and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as explained. In this epidemic, thousands of seriously ill patients die every day due to the lack of specific antiviral treatment and inadequate clinical treatment. The high rate of nucleotide change and recombination of CoVs in recent years has been accelerating largely due to factors such as population, urbanization and modern agriculture and animal husbandry practices. These factors facilitated inter-species mixing and crossing species barriers and led to genomic recombination of CoVs. An effective way to prevent viral zoonotic infections is to protect barriers between natural reservoirs and human society, taking into account the concept of "one health".