Peridomestic Mammal Susceptibility to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infection

Abstract

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Natural and Experimental SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Domestic and Wild Animals

“…Though not a domestic species, a single study did find that three wild-caught cottontail rabbits ( Sylvilagus sp.) were not susceptible to experimental SARS-CoV-2 infection when inoculated intranasally with a viral dose between 3 × 10 4 to 8 × 10 4 TCID 50 [ 83 ]. The cottontail rabbits did not exhibit any viral shedding at 3 DPC, at which point they were euthanized.…”

“…North American deer mice ( Peromyscus maniculatus ) have been shown by multiple studies to be susceptible to experimental SARS-CoV-2 infection [ 83 , 109 , 110 ]. Deer mice are widely distributed across North America and are members of the Cricetidae family, along with hamsters.…”

“…Experimental studies investigating the susceptibility of deer mice to SARS-CoV-2 have used a 4 × 10 4 to 1 × 10 5 TCID 50 viral dose administered intranasally [ 83 , 109 , 110 ]. One of the studies used wild, trapped deer mice [ 83 ], whereas the others used in-house colonies, aged 2 weeks to 8 months [ 109 , 110 ].…”

“…** Cottontail rabbits ( Sylvilagus sp.) were resistant to infection [ 83 ], although the dose administered was lower than that required for infection of New Zealand white rabbits [ 82 ]; therefore, their true susceptibility is unknown. Clear evidence of outwardly observable clinical signs (violet circle), shedding of infectious virus (orange circle), animal-to-animal transmission (blue circle), and mortality (red circle) upon infection is shown for each species.…”

An Opportunistic Survey Reveals an Unexpected Coronavirus Diversity Hotspot in North America

“…For example, a coronavirus was identified in a moribund raccoon in the United States [23]; and in Japan, 7% of wild raccoons are sero-positive for canine alphacoronavirus [24]. While Bosco-Lauth et al showed that skunks but not raccoons are susceptible to infection with SARS-CoV-2, prior to this study, natural coronavirus infection had not been reported in skunks [25]. In our study, we detected the presence of coronavirus RNA in two raccoons and three skunks but were unable to characterize the viruses further.…”