SARS-CoV-2 Exposure in Norway Rats (Rattus norvegicus) from New York City

Abstract

The host tropism expansion of SARS-CoV-2 raises concern for the potential risk of reverse-zoonotic transmission of emerging variants into rodent species, including wild rat species. In this study, we present both genetic and serological evidence for SARS-CoV-2 exposure to the New York City wild rat population, and these viruses may be linked to the viruses that were circulating during the early stages of the pandemic.

Metagenomic sequencing detects human respiratory and enteric viruses in air samples collected from congregate settings

“…Truly pathogen-agnostic methods, such as SMART-9N, are also becoming available 31 . These kits have been used with several different sample types to detect common and uncommon viruses in human and animal specimens (nasal swabs and plasma), mosquitoes, and wastewater [32][33][34][35] Ribosomal RNA depletion and target enrichment both show great promise for enabling air sample networks to screen for pathogens with low abundance in the air.…”

SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses in rats, Berlin, Germany, 2023

“…Because of the long-term association between rodents and coronaviruses (1) , the wide range of coronaviruses occurring in wild rodents (2) and the ubiquitous distribution of commensal rodents, it was obvious to also include rodents in susceptibility studies, among them rats. Under experimental conditions using high infection doses, rats were reported as receptive particularly to the SARS-CoV-2 delta variant of concern (VOC), but also experimental infection with other variants like alpha, beta or omicron were described (3,4) , posing the theoretical risk for establishing effective infection chains in nature. Accordingly, field studies were initiated early into the pandemic to investigate the situation in wild rats.…”

“…In laboratory settings, lungs from omicron-infected animals showed significantly lower infectious viral titers compared e.g. to delta (3) , but field studies about omicron occurrence in rat populations are missing. Therefore, we investigated rats trapped in Berlin, the very densely populated (>4,000 inhabitants per km 2 ) capital of Germany, during 2023, i.e.…”

“…Accordingly, field studies were initiated early into the pandemic to investigate the situation in wild rats. Indeed, serological and molecular evidences of SARS-CoV-2 infection of a few animals could be found in some studies (2,3,5), while others reported consistently negative results (6,7). However, these studies were conducted before the emergence and worldwide large-scale spread of the omicron VOC and its diverse subvariants.…”

Lack of detection of SARS-CoV-2 in British wildlife 2020-21 and first description of a stoat (Mustela erminea) Minacovirus

“…SARS-CoV-2 infection in Muridae such as house mice ( Mus musculus ) and brown rats ( Rattus norvegicus ) may depend on the virus strain: initial studies with the original (Wuhan) strains of the virus failed to infect them (Dinnon, Leist et al 2020, Shuai, Chan et al 2021) and field studies failed to demonstrate evidence of infection in wild populations (27 M.musculus and 97 R.Norvegicus) . Later variants did however cause infection in laboratory studies (Gu, Chen et al 2020, Shuai, Chan et al 2021, Halfmann, Iida et al 2022, Zhang, Cui et al 2022) and there have been several subsequent t field reports of sporadic infection of rats (Fisher, Airey et al 2023, Robinson, Kotwa et al 2023, Wang, Lenoch et al 2023).…”