Abstract
Coronaviruses are enveloped RNA viruses capable of causing respiratory, enteric, or systemic diseases in a variety of mammalian hosts that vary in clinical severity from subclinical to fatal. The host range and tissue tropism are largely determined by the coronaviral spike protein, which initiates cellular infection by promoting fusion of the viral and host cell membranes. Companion animal coronaviruses responsible for causing enteric infection include feline enteric coronavirus, ferret enteric coronavirus, canine enteric coronavirus, equine coronavirus, and alpaca enteric coronavirus, while canine respiratory coronavirus and alpaca respiratory coronavirus result in respiratory infection. Ferret systemic coronavirus and feline infectious peritonitis virus, a mutated feline enteric coronavirus, can lead to lethal immuno-inflammatory systemic disease. Recent human viral pandemics, including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), and most recently, COVID-19, all thought to originate from bat coronaviruses, demonstrate the zoonotic potential of coronaviruses and their potential to have devastating impacts. A better understanding of the coronaviruses of companion animals, their capacity for cross-species transmission, and the sharing of genetic information may facilitate improved prevention and control strategies for future emerging zoonotic coronaviruses. This article reviews the clinical, epidemiologic, virologic, and pathologic characteristics of nine important coronaviruses of companion animals.
Highlights
Coronaviruses are spherical, enveloped, single-stranded, positive-sense RNA viruses within the family Coronaviridae, named for the ultrastructural “crown-like” appearance of the spike proteins on the virion surface
Alpha- and betacoronaviruses originate from bats and predominantly infect mammals, while gamma- and deltacoronaviruses originate from birds and are capable of infecting both bird and and deltacoronaviruses originateanimals from birds and are capableinclude of infecting both ferrets, bird and mammal mammal species [6]
In addition to replicase activity, RdRp has transcriptase activity; by discontinuous RNA synthesis directed by transcriptional regulatory sequences, RdRp creates a set of subgenomic RNAs of different sizes [24], which are copied by RdRp into positive-sense mRNAs, serving as templates for translation of viral proteins necessary for virion assembly, including the structural proteins S, E, M, and N
Summary
Coronaviruses are spherical, enveloped, single-stranded, positive-sense RNA viruses within the family Coronaviridae, named for the ultrastructural “crown-like” (corona) appearance of the spike proteins on the virion surface. The ability of SARS-CoV-2 to initiate infections in companion animals currently that ferrets and cats are permissive for SARS-CoV-2 thepermissive virus has poorly understood, preliminary studies haveinfection indicatedand thatreplication, ferrets andwhile cats are been shown to replicate in dogs, pigs, chickens, andhas ducks. In addition to replicase activity, RdRp has transcriptase activity; by discontinuous RNA synthesis directed by transcriptional regulatory sequences, RdRp creates a set of subgenomic RNAs (sgRNA) of different sizes [24], which are copied by RdRp into positive-sense mRNAs, serving as templates for translation of viral proteins necessary for virion assembly, including the structural proteins S, E, M, and N. Viral genomes (+gRNA) encapsidated by N proteins bud into the ERGIC membrane, forming fully assembled virions surrounded by a host-derived lipid bilayer [25].
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