Pigs and chickens cannot get sick from COVID-19, although fruit bats and ferrets are susceptible to the zoonotic disease, finds a new study conducted at the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI) in Germany.
These results back up the preliminary findings of a similar preprint study in China that is currently awaiting peer review.
What exactly is COVID-19?
COVID-19 is part of a family of single-stranded RNA viruses – called coronaviruses – that cause respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases in the species they infect, including poultry.
Up to 75% of emerging infectious diseases worldwide – including coronaviruses – are zoonotic, which means that they can infect people and animals. In the case of COVID-19, the virus is thought to have originated in bats, although an intermediary animal may have also played a role in transmitting the virus to humans, scientists say.
“The coronavirus is an example of how pathogens can move between humans and animals,” Sally Rockey, the Executive Director of the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) said in a statement announcing five new Vet Fellowships for pandemic and zoonotic research in food animals. “Understanding new diseases in animals, and especially how they spread, is vital to slowing transmission and developing remedies.”
The study
Egyptian fruit bats, ferrets, pigs and chickens were inoculated nasally with the virus, mimicking the natural route of infection in people.
Initial results revealed that the bats and ferrets could be infected with COVID-19. The finding in ferrets, in particular, is important because it suggests that ferrets could be a good animal model to test possible vaccines or drugs for COVID-19.
Under experimental conditions, neither the pigs nor the chickens showed any susceptibility to COVID-19. Researchers examined whether the animals got infected, if the virus was able to replicate within the bodies of the pigs or chickens, if the animals displayed any symptoms and even tested if the animals excreted the pathogen.
The study indicates that the two farm animal species are not affected by the virus and do not pose any additional risk to human health. More complete results from the study will be released in May.
View our continuing coverage of the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic.
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