Progress of research on COVID-19 animal models

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: COVID-19 continues to spread globally, which poses a significant threat to global public health security. Recently, the emergence of new variant strains of SARS-CoV-2 complicates the containment of COVID-19 due to its rapid transmission, high infectivity, high viral load, atypical symptoms and high number of severe cases. In order to further understand the transmission route, pathogenesis and pathological changes of COVID-19, and accelerate the research and development of antiviral drugs and vaccines, animal models of COVID-19 have played an important role in this process. The status of research on different animal models of COVID-19 was reviewed, the characteristics were compared among the models so as to provide theoretical basis for selecting appropriate animal models of COVID-19.