Printer Friendly
The Free Library
14,529,525 articles and books
Member login
User name  
Password 
 
Join us Forgot password?

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 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Definition

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is the first emergent and highly transmissible viral disease to appear during the twenty-first century.
 (SARS)--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 
 (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 pharynx (fâr`ĭngks), area of the gastrointestinal and respiratory tracts which lies between the mouth and the esophagus. In humans, the pharynx is a cone-shaped tube about 4 1-2 in. (11.43 cm) long.  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 Gardens Amoy Gardens (Chinese: 淘大花園; Jyutping: tou4 daai6 faa1 jyun4; Pinyin: táo dà huā yuán) is a high-density middle-class housing estate in Hong Kong completed from 1980 - 1987.  in Hong Kong Hong Kong (hŏng kŏng), Mandarin Xianggang, special administrative region of China, formerly a British crown colony (2005 est. pop. 6,899,000), land area 422 sq mi (1,092 sq km), adjacent to Guangdong prov. , 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 contaminated,
v 1. made radioactive by the addition of small quantities of radioactive material.
2. made contaminated by adding infective or radiographic materials.
3. an infective surface or object.
 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 ri·el  
n.
See Table at currency.



[Origin unknown.]

Noun 1. riel - the basic unit of money in Cambodia; equal to 100 sen
 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 The SARS coronavirus is the virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).[1] On April 16 2003, following the outbreak of SARS in Asia and secondary cases elsewhere in the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a press release stating that the  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 infectious diseases: see communicable 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 (Sun Yat-Sen) 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
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 2004, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

 Reader Opinion

Title:

Comment:



 

Article Details
Printer friendly Cite/link Email Feedback
Title Annotation:Letters
Author:Qu, Liang-Hu
Publication:Emerging Infectious Diseases
Date:May 1, 2004
Words:548
Previous Article:Beijing/W Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Italy.(Letters)
Next Article:The 1947 smallpox vaccination campaign in New York City, revisited.(Letters)
Topics:



Related Articles
Role of China in the quest to define and control severe acute respiratory syndrome.(Perspectives)
Severe acute respiratory syndrome: an overview.(Featured CME Topic)
Genetic variation of SARS coronavirus in Beijing hospital.(Research)
Domestic poultry and SARS coronavirus, southern China.(Dispatches)
Mice susceptible to SARS coronavirus.(Dispatches)
Antibodies to SARS coronavirus in civets.(Dispatches)
SARS-associated coronavirus transmitted from human to pig.(Dispatches)
SARS vaccine development.(SYNOPSIS)(severe acute respiratory syndrome)
SARS-CoV infection in a restaurant from palm civet.(RESEARCH)(severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus infection)
SARS-associated coronavirus replication in cell lines.(RESEARCH)

Terms of use | Copyright © 2009 Farlex, Inc. | Feedback | For webmasters | Submit articles