Identification of Alpha and Beta Coronavirus in Wildlife Species in France: Bats, Rodents, Rabbits, and Hedgehogs

Abstract

Coronaviruses are closely monitored in the context of emerging diseases and, as illustrated with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-coronavirus (MERS-CoV), are known to cross the species barrier and eventually to move from wildlife to humans. Knowledge of the diversity of coronaviruses in wildlife is therefore essential to better understand and prevent emergence events. This study explored the presence of coronaviruses in four wild mammal orders in France: Bats, rodents, lagomorphs, and hedgehogs. Betacoronavirus and Alphacoronavirus genera were identified. The results obtained suggest the circulation of potentially evolving virus strains, with the potential to cross the species barrier.

Synanthropic rodents as virus reservoirs and transmitters

“…), collected between 2014 and 2016 in different regions of France 121 , revealed positivity of 6.3% (21 samples), all belonging to Alphacoronavirus groups. This study also revealed Alpha and Betacoronavirus in bats, rabbits, and hedgehogs from the same area 121 .…”

“…Betacoronaviruses are found mainly in mammals, such as humans, dogs, cats, pigs, bats, mice, rats, horses, and cattle 114,[118][119][120][121][122][123] , while Gama and Deltacoronaviruses infect mainly birds, with exceptions such as the white whale Gamacoronavirus (Delphinapterus leucas) 124 and the porcine Deltacoronavirus 125 .…”

Identification of Coronavirus Isolated from a Patient in Korea with COVID-19

“…Coronavirus is an RNA virus consisting of positive-sense single-stranded RNA of approximately 27-32 kb. Coronavirus belong to the family Coronaviridae, which comprises of alpha, beta, delta, and gamma coronaviruses [1,2]. As the name indicates, the spherical external spike protein displays a characteristic crown shape when observed under an electron microscope [3,4].…”

“…Infected hosts exhibit different clinical courses, ranging from asymptomatic to severe symptoms in their respiratory, digestive, and genital organs [1,2]. There are 6 known coronaviruses that typically cause infection in humans.…”

Full genome characterization of two novel Alpha-coronavirus species from Italian bats

“…In Europe, several studies described the presence of CoVs in bat populations detecting both Alpha-CoVs and Beta-CoVs in Germany, Spain, Luxembourg, Italy, The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France and Hungary (Gloza-Rausch et al, 2008;Reusken et al, 2010;Falcon et al, 2011;August et al, 2012;Lelli et al, 2013;Kemenesi et al, 2014;Goffard et al, 2015;Monchatre-Leroy et al, 2017;Pauly et al, 2017) from more than 20 different bat species. The detection of the same CoV strains (100% nucleotide identity) in different colonies of the same bat species or the circulation of different genera of CoVs (Alpha-CoVs and Beta-CoVs) in the same bat species confirm the high heterogeneity of CoVs in bats and that bat-CoV diversity depends more on the species-specificity than the geography and sampling location.…”