Abstract
We identified the near-full-genome sequence (29,908 nt, >99%) of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) from a nasal swab specimen from a dromedary camel in Egypt. We found that viruses genetically very similar to human MERS-CoV are infecting dromedaries beyond the Arabian Peninsula, where human MERS-CoV infections have not yet been detected.
Highlights
We identified the near-full-genome sequence (29,908 nt, >99%) of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-C betacoronavirus (CoV)) from a nasal swab specimen from a dromedary camel in Egypt
Our findings confirm that MERS-CoV infects dromedary camels and that this virus is genetically very similar to a MERS-CoV that is infecting humans
The detection of MERS-CoV in nasal swab specimens of camels in 2 of 12 sampling occasions in abattoirs, taken together with the high seropositivity to MERS-CoV in dromedaries previously reported, supports the contention that MERS-CoV infection is common in dromedaries
Summary
Nasal swabs from dromedary camels were placed in phosphate-buffered saline/glycerol transport medium, kept on ice during the field trip and stored at 80°C on arriving at the laboratory. We detected MERS-CoV RNA in 4 (3.6%) of 110 nasal swab specimens from dromedary camels with the upstream of E gene assay (cycle threshold [Ct] 23.2–36.8), confirmed by the ORF1a assay (Ct 23.2–39.1), fulfilling the World Health Organization criteria for diagnosis of MERS-CoV infection (Table 1). The pan-CoV nested PCR detected CoV in an additional 8 specimens from dromedary camels. Sequence analyses of these additional positive samples showed that these amplicon sequences were genetically similar to those of bovine coronavirus (BCoV) (>99% nucleotide similarity). The animals positive for either MERSCoV or BCoV-like virus were all imported from Sudan or Ethiopia for slaughter. MERS-CoV (NRCE-HKU205) and human MERS-CoV (EMC/2012) at the nucleotide and amino acid levels*
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