Risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission from humans to bats – An Australian assessment

Cox-Witton, Keren; Baker, Michelle L.; Edson, Dan; Peel, Alison J.; Welbergen, Justin A.; Field, Hume

doi:10.1016/j.onehlt.2021.100247

Cited by 15 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…For example, North American bats are threatened by an emerging disease, white-nose syndrome, 89 which has documented synzootic interactions with other bat coronaviruses; 90 at least seven North American bat species that can be infected by the fungal pathogen ( Eptesicus fuscus, Myotis ciliolabrum, Myotis lucifugus, Myotis septentrionalis, Myotis velifer, Myotis volans , and Tadarida brasiliensis ) are among the 412 bat species that we predicted could be undiscovered betacoronavirus hosts. Although our predictions do not imply bat susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 specifically (and experimental infections of E fuscus have been unsuccessful 91 ), efforts to minimise the risks of SARS-CoV-2 spillback into novel bat reservoirs, 92 , 93 , 94 , 95 , 96 as well as to understand the dynamics of other bat coronaviruses, will both reduce zoonotic risk and help to understand and counteract disease-related population declines. Similarly, conservationists have expressed concern that the negative framing of bats as the source of SARS-CoV-2 has affected public and governmental attitudes toward bat conservation; 97 this can fuel negative responses, including indiscriminate culling (ie, the reduction of populations by slaughter), which has already occurred in response to COVID-19 even outside of Asia (where a spillover probably occurred).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 74%

Optimising predictive models to prioritise viral discovery in zoonotic reservoirs

et al. 2022

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Despite the global investment in One Health disease surveillance, it remains difficult and costly to identify and monitor the wildlife reservoirs of novel zoonotic viruses. Statistical models can guide sampling target prioritisation, but the predictions from any given model might be highly uncertain; moreover, systematic model validation is rare, and the drivers of model performance are consequently under-documented. Here, we use the bat hosts of betacoronaviruses as a case study for the data-driven process of comparing and validating predictive models of probable reservoir hosts. In early 2020, we generated an ensemble of eight statistical models that predicted host–virus associations and developed priority sampling recommendations for potential bat reservoirs of betacoronaviruses and bridge hosts for SARS-CoV-2. During a time frame of more than a year, we tracked the discovery of 47 new bat hosts of betacoronaviruses, validated the initial predictions, and dynamically updated our analytical pipeline. We found that ecological trait-based models performed well at predicting these novel hosts, whereas network methods consistently performed approximately as well or worse than expected at random. These findings illustrate the importance of ensemble modelling as a buffer against mixed-model quality and highlight the value of including host ecology in predictive models. Our revised models showed an improved performance compared with the initial ensemble, and predicted more than 400 bat species globally that could be undetected betacoronavirus hosts. We show, through systematic validation, that machine learning models can help to optimise wildlife sampling for undiscovered viruses and illustrates how such approaches are best implemented through a dynamic process of prediction, data collection, validation, and updating.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 74%

Optimising predictive models to prioritise viral discovery in zoonotic reservoirs

et al. 2022

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“…If this happens, it will be very difficult to eradicate the virus. Moreover, vaccination of humans and pets will not be successful also [ 73 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial epidemiology and genetic diversity of SARS-CoV-2 and related coronaviruses in domestic and wild animals

et al. 2021

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The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) showed susceptibility to diverse animal species. We conducted this study to understand the spatial epidemiology, genetic diversity, and statistically significant genetic similarity along with per-gene recombination events of SARS-CoV-2 and related viruses (SC2r-CoVs) in animals globally. We collected a number of different animal species infected with SARS-CoV-2 and its related viruses. Then, we retrieved genome sequences of SARS-CoV-2 and SC2r-CoVs from GISAID and NCBI GenBank for genomic and mutational analysis. Although the evolutionary origin of SARS-CoV-2 remains elusive, the diverse SC2r-CoV have been detected in multiple Rhinolophus bat species and in Malayan pangolin. To date, human-to-animal spillover events have been reported in cat, dog, tiger, lion, gorilla, leopard, ferret, puma, cougar, otter, and mink in 25 countries. Phylogeny and genetic recombination events of SC2r-CoVs showed higher similarity to the bat coronavirus RaTG13 and BANAL-103 for most of the genes and to some Malayan pangolin coronavirus (CoV) strains for the N protein from bats and pangolin showed close resemblance to SARS-CoV-2. The clustering of animal and human strains from the same geographical area has proved human-to-animal transmission of the virus. The Alpha, Delta and Mu-variant of SARS-CoV-2 was detected in dog, gorilla, lion, tiger, otter, and cat in the USA, India, Czech Republic, Belgium, and France with momentous genetic similarity with human SARS-CoV-2 sequences. The mink variant mutation (spike_Y453F) was detected in both humans and domestic cats. Moreover, the dog was affected mostly by clade O (66.7%), whereas cat and American mink were affected by clade GR (31.6 and 49.7%, respectively). The α-variant was detected as 2.6% in cat, 4.8% in dog, 14.3% in tiger, 66.7% in gorilla, and 77.3% in lion. The highest mutations observed in mink where the substitution of D614G in spike (95.2%) and P323L in NSP12 (95.2%) protein. In dog, cat, gorilla, lion, and tiger, Y505H and Y453F were the common mutations followed by Y145del, Y144del, and V70I in S protein. We recommend vaccine provision for pet and zoo animals to reduce the chance of transmission in animals. Besides, continuous epidemiological and genomic surveillance of coronaviruses in animal host is crucial to find out the immediate ancestor of SARS-CoV-2 and to prevent future CoVs threats to humans.

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“…One study suggested that cat fleas, Ctenocephalides felis , might act as biological and/or mechanical vectors, as coronavirus‐derived RNA and cell receptor ACE RNA/proteins were identified in cat fleas. 212 However, current evidence suggests that pets are probably “dead‐end”‐hosts with small risk of transmission to humans. Still, pet owners are concerned: 60% of U.S. veterinarians encountered owners that were worried about their pets having COVID‐19.…”

Section: Origin and Transmissionmentioning

confidence: 99%

One Health: EAACI Position Paper on coronaviruses at the human‐animal interface, with a specific focus on comparative and zoonotic aspects of SARS‐CoV‐2

Korath

Janda

Untersmayr

et al. 2021

Allergy

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The latest outbreak of a coronavirus disease in 2019 (COVID‐19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2), evolved into a worldwide pandemic with massive effects on health, quality of life, and economy. Given the short period of time since the outbreak, there are several knowledge gaps on the comparative and zoonotic aspects of this new virus. Within the One Health concept, the current EAACI position paper dwells into the current knowledge on SARS‐CoV‐2’s receptors, symptoms, transmission routes for human and animals living in close vicinity to each other, usefulness of animal models to study this disease and management options to avoid intra‐ and interspecies transmission. Similar pandemics might appear unexpectedly and more frequently in the near future due to climate change, consumption of exotic foods and drinks, globe‐trotter travel possibilities, the growing world population, the decreasing production space, declining room for wildlife and free‐ranging animals, and the changed lifestyle including living very close to animals. Therefore, both the society and the health authorities need to be aware and well prepared for similar future situations, and research needs to focus on prevention and fast development of treatment options (medications, vaccines).

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Risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission from humans to bats – An Australian assessment

Cited by 15 publications

References 28 publications

Optimising predictive models to prioritise viral discovery in zoonotic reservoirs

Optimising predictive models to prioritise viral discovery in zoonotic reservoirs

Spatial epidemiology and genetic diversity of SARS-CoV-2 and related coronaviruses in domestic and wild animals

One Health: EAACI Position Paper on coronaviruses at the human‐animal interface, with a specific focus on comparative and zoonotic aspects of SARS‐CoV‐2

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