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Animal-to-human SARS-associated coronavirus transmission?


To the Editor: Martina et al. reported that domestic cats and ferrets are susceptible to infection by severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS SARS - Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (caused by member of Corona virus family)
SARS - Sacral Anterior Root Stimulator
SARS - Sample of Anonymized Records
SARS - San Antonio Rotablator Study
SARS - Schweitzer Alpine Racing School
SARS - Schweres Akutes Respiratorisches Syndrom (German: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome)
SARS - Scientific Apparatus Recycling Scheme
SARS - Secure Asset Reporting System
SARS - Segmentation And Reassembly Sublayer
)--associated coronavirus coronavirus /co·ro·na·vi·rus/ (ko-ro´nah-vi?rus) any virus belonging to the family Coronaviridae.
Coronavirus /Co·ro·na·vi·rus/ (ko-ro´nah-vi?rus) coronaviruses; a genus of viruses of the family Coronaviridae that cause respiratory disease and possibly gastroenteritis in humans and hepatitis, gastroenteritis, encephalitis, and respiratory disease in other
 (SARS-CoV) isolated from a patient infected with SARS. These infected animals could efficiently transmit the virus to uninfected animals housed with them (1). This finding is similar to that of SARS transmission in humans in which SARS-CoV can be quickly spread from person to person through close contact. Ferrets and domestic cats not only can be infected by SARS-CoV in the laboratory, but also can shed SARS-CoV from the pharynx phar·ynx·es or pha·ryng·es (f-rnj at 2 days postinfection and continuing through 10 and 14 days postinfection, respectively (1). No clinical signs were observed in six cats that were injected with SARS-CoV, whereas three of six ferrets that were injected with SARS-CoV became lethargic within 2 to 4 days postinfection, and one of the three ferrets died at day 4 postinfection (1,2). This finding indicates that domestic cats may not only be a useful animal model for evaluating candidate vaccines and drugs against SARS (1) but also may be good reservoirs of SARS-CoV. Domestic cats living in the Amoy Amoy (ämoi`): see Xiamen, China. Gardens in Hong Kong, where >100 residents contracted SARS in the spring of 2003, were infected with SARS-CoV (1,3). This fact suggests that domestic cats can be naturally infected with SARS-CoV from humans infected with SARS, although how this SARS-CoV transmission occurs is unclear. Unfortunately, however, the transmission capability of the SARS-CoV strain transmitting from domestic animal to human, despite the widely accepted hypothesis of the animal origin of SARS-CoV (4-5), cannot be ascertained. If the transmission of SARS-CoV from animal to human is as easy as that from humans to domestic cats, the speculation that the outbreak of SARS in the Amoy Garden in Hung Kong was caused by environmental sources, such as U-traps in bathrooms contaminated with SARS-CoV (3), we should reevaluate, because this outbreak of SARS in these apartments might also be caused by infected cats or other mammalian hosts.

References

(1.) Martina BE, Haagmans BL, Kuiken T, Fouchier RA, Rimmelzwaan GF, Van Amerongen G, et al. SARS virus infection of cats and ferrets. Nature 2003;425:915.

(2.) Kuiken T, Fouchier RA, Schutten M, Rimmelzwaan GF, van Amerongen G, van Riel D, et al. Newly discovered SARS-CoV coronavirus as the primary cause of severe acute respiratory syndrome. Lancet 2003;362:263-70.

(3.) World Health Organization. Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-multi-country outbreak [monograph on the [Internet]. [cited 2003 Apr 18] Update 33. Available from: http://www.who.int/csr/don/2003_04_18/en/

(4.) Guan guan: see curassow. Y, Zheng BJ, He YQ, Liu XL, Zhuang ZX, Cheung CL, et al. isolation and characterization of viruses related to the SARS coronavirus from animals in southern China. Science 2003;302:276-8.

(5.) Antia R, Rogoes RR, Koella JC, Bergstrom CT. The rule of evolution in the emergence of infectious diseases. Nature 2003; 426:658-61.

(6.) Stavrinides J, Guttman DS. Mosaic evolution of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus. J Virol 2004;78:76-82.

Address for correspondence: Zhao-Rong Lun, Zhongshan Zhongshan (jng-shän) or Shekki (shĕ`kē`), town (1994 est. pop. 341,200), S Guangdong prov., SE China, near Macao. (Sun Yat-Sen Sun Yat-sen (sn yät-sĕn), Mandarin Sun Wen, 1866–1925, Chinese revolutionary. He was born near Guangzhou into a farm-owning family.) University, Center for Parasitic Organisms, 135 Xingan Xi Road, Guangzhou, 510275, People's Republic of China, fax: 8620-8403-6215; email: lsslzr@zsu.edu.cn

Zhao-Rong Lun * and Liang-Hu Qu *

* Zhongshan (Sun Yat-Sen) University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China
COPYRIGHT 2004 U.S. National Center for Infectious Diseases
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Title Annotation:Letters
Author:Qu, Liang-Hu
Publication:Emerging Infectious Diseases
Date:May 1, 2004
Words:548
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