RESUMO
The current pandemic produced by SARS-CoV-2 and its variants represent an example of the one health concept in which humans and animals are components of the same epidemiologic chain. Animal reservoirs of these viruses are thus the focus of surveillance programs, to monitor their circulation and evolution in potentially new hosts and reservoirs. In this work, we report the detection of the SARS-CoV-2 Gamma variant infection in four specimens of Chaetophractus villosus (big hairy armadillo/armadillo peludo) in Argentina. In addition to the finding of a new wildlife species susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection, the identification of the Gamma variant three months after its last detection in humans in Argentina is a noteworthy result, which can be due to alternative non-exclusive scenarios, such as unidentified viral reservoirs, unrecognized circulation in humans or species-specific variation in incubation periods.
RESUMO
Due to the present pandemic situation and the many animal species that are epidemiologically involved, there has been a surge of renewed interest in investigating the coronavirus (CoV) population circulating in wildlife, especially bats and rodents, which are potential reservoirs of new human pathogens. In Argentina, information about the viruses present in these mammals is very limited. To investigate the presence of coronaviruses in this country, we obtained 457 samples from hematophagous, insectivorous, and frugivorous bats and rodents from two regions of Argentina. We report here the detection of alphacoronavirus sequences in three groups of bats as well as in rodents. Phylogenetic analysis showed the closest relationships to alphacoronaviruses from Brazil.
