No Evidence of Coronaviruses or Other Potentially Zoonotic Viruses in Sunda pangolins (Manis javanica) Entering the Wildlife Trade via Malaysia

Jimmy Lee,Senthilvel K S S Nathan,Jonathan H Epstein,Tom Hughes,Jeffrine Japning Rovie-Ryan,Hume Field,Diana Ramirez,Frankie Thomas Sitam,Helen Lasimbang,Symphorosa Sipangkui,Mei-Ho Lee,Peter Daszak,Subbiah Vijay Kumar

doi:10.1007/s10393-020-01503-x

Jimmy Lee, Senthilvel K S S Nathan + Show 11 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-020-01503-x

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Abstract

The legal and illegal trade in wildlife for food, medicine and other products is a globally significant threat to biodiversity that is also responsible for the emergence of pathogens that threaten human and livestock health and our global economy. Trade in wildlife likely played a role in the origin of COVID-19, and viruses closely related to SARS-CoV-2 have been identified in bats and pangolins, both traded widely. To investigate the possible role of pangolins as a source of potential zoonoses, we collected throat and rectal swabs from 334 Sunda pangolins (Manis javanica) confiscated in Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah between August 2009 and March 2019. Total nucleic acid was extracted for viral molecular screening using conventional PCR protocols used to routinely identify known and novel viruses in extensive prior sampling (> 50,000 mammals). No sample yielded a positive PCR result for any of the targeted viral families—Coronaviridae, Filoviridae, Flaviviridae, Orthomyxoviridae and Paramyxoviridae. In the light of recent reports of coronaviruses including a SARS-CoV-2-related virus in Sunda pangolins in China, the lack of any coronavirus detection in our ‘upstream’ market chain samples suggests that these detections in ‘downstream’ animals more plausibly reflect exposure to infected humans, wildlife or other animals within the wildlife trade network. While confirmatory serologic studies are needed, it is likely that Sunda pangolins are incidental hosts of coronaviruses. Our findings further support the importance of ending the trade in wildlife globally.

Highlights

The legal and illegal trade in wildlife for consumption as food, medicine and other products is a globally significant threat to conservation (Smith et al 2006; Nayar 2009; Rosen and Smith 2010)
It drives the emergence of pathogens that threaten human and domestic animal health, and national and global economies (Lee and McKibbin 2004; Smith et al 2008, 2009). This includes the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak caused by SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV), which originated in the large wet markets of Guangdong province, China (Ksiazek et al 2003), and the current COVID-19 outbreak caused by SARS-CoV-2, first discovered in people associated with a wet market in Wuhan (Zhou et al 2020; Zhu et al 2020)
Our negative findings across five viral families associated with emerging and re-emerging zoonotic diseases in recent decades in these throat and rectal swabs indicate the absence of viral shedding, and contrast with reports of the detection of parainfluenza virus (Wang et al 2018), coronaviruses and Sendai virus (Liu et al 2019; Zhang et al 2020), and SARSr-CoVs (Lam et al 2020; Xiao et al 2020) in Sunda pangolins

Summary

Introduction

The legal and illegal trade in wildlife for consumption as food, medicine and other products is a globally significant threat to conservation (Smith et al 2006; Nayar 2009; Rosen and Smith 2010). It drives the emergence of pathogens that threaten human and domestic animal health, and national and global economies (Lee and McKibbin 2004; Smith et al 2008, 2009) This includes the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak caused by SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV), which originated in the large wet markets of Guangdong province, China (Ksiazek et al 2003), and the current COVID-19 outbreak caused by SARS-CoV-2, first discovered in people associated with a wet market in Wuhan (Zhou et al 2020; Zhu et al 2020). Four different groups have identified coronaviruses in imported Sunda or Malayan pangolins (Manis javanica) seized in raids on wildlife traders in China (Liu et al 2019; Lam et al 2020; Xiao et al 2020; Zhang et al 2020) The genomes of these are closely related to SARSCoV-2, in some genes, including the s-gene responsible for binding to host cells, albeit that some bat-CoVs have higher overall sequence identity to SARS-CoV-2 (Latinne et al 2020). Authors of these papers propose that further sampling of pangolins might help elucidate the potential role of pangolins in the evolution of SARSr-CoVs, the emergence of COVID-19, and the risk of future zoonotic viral emergence (Liu et al 2020; Lam et al 2020; Xiao et al 2020)

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