Abstract
The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had devastating health and socio-economic impacts. Human activities, especially at the wildlife interphase, are at the core of forces driving the emergence of new viral agents. Global surveillance activities have identified bats as the natural hosts of diverse coronaviruses, with other domestic and wildlife animal species possibly acting as intermediate or spillover hosts. The African continent is confronted by several factors that challenge prevention and response to novel disease emergences, such as high species diversity, inadequate health systems, and drastic social and ecosystem changes. We reviewed published animal coronavirus surveillance studies conducted in Africa, specifically summarizing surveillance approaches, species numbers tested, and findings. Far more surveillance has been initiated among bat populations than other wildlife and domestic animals, with nearly 26,000 bat individuals tested. Though coronaviruses have been identified from approximately 7% of the total bats tested, surveillance among other animals identified coronaviruses in less than 1%. In addition to a large undescribed diversity, sequences related to four of the seven human coronaviruses have been reported from African bats. The review highlights research gaps and the disparity in surveillance efforts between different animal groups (particularly potential spillover hosts) and concludes with proposed strategies for improved future biosurveillance.
Highlights
In the past two decades, four novel coronaviruses of public and veterinary health importance have emerged
Dromedary camels are considered the reservoirs of MERS-CoV, though the original source and transmission routes from animals are still uncertain for SARS-CoV
This review focuses in greater detail on the total coronavirus diversity identified among African animal species
Summary
In the past two decades, four novel coronaviruses of public and veterinary health importance have emerged. The fourth emergent coronavirus, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), emerged in the Arabian Peninsula in 2012 [7,8] These events show that coronaviruses have the potential to spillover from natural hosts into different species and cause severe diseases with devastating consequences. Bat coronaviruses with genetic similarity to known coronavirus species, such as HCoV229E and HCoVNL63, are suggested to have acted as ancestors of these human viruses from previous spillover events [19]. The review was expanded to include the currently available surveillance data among non-bat wildlife and domesticated livestock as hosts of coronavirus diversity. We highlight surveillance approaches from previous studies, important findings, and gaps in current surveillance and propose a surveillance framework to guide the design of future biosurveillance studies
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