Tuesday, May 15, 2018

New emerging global coronavirus in pigs has the potential to transmit to humans.



Image: By Johan Spaedtke - Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26954959

The Porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV), identified in 2012, is a common enteropathogen of swine with worldwide distribution. The evolutionary cycle/origin of this virus is still unknown.  The PDCoV has predominantly been associated with avian CoV. Analysis suggests that PDCoV has experienced a host-switching event between birds and mammals.
The porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV) (species name coronavirus HKU15) was identified in Hong Kong in pigs in the late 2000s  and has since been detected in swine populations in various countries worldwide (Wentao, et al., 2018). The virus can cause acute diarrhea and vomiting, and can sometimes be fatal.

Due to the presumed origin in avian species and the known cross-species transmission of CoVs, researchers began to investigate the susceptibility of cell lines other than swine to this PDCoV infection. They began to test cell lines derived from human and galline tissues. They found both were susceptible to PDCoV infection

“Successful cross-species transmission depends foremost on the virus’ ability to bind and functionally use a receptor within an alternative host, causing the S protein to be the driver of CoV emergence” (Wentao, et. al, 2018). Due to the fact that pigs are the second largest global livestock species, and the potential for them to spread zoonotic diseases; this study sheds light on the importance of further study.

To read the FULL STUDY on this research please follow the link at PNAS here: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1802879115

Reference:

Wentao Li, Ruben J. G. Hulswit, Scott P. Kenney, Ivy Widjaja, Kwonil Jung, Moyasar A. Alhamo, Brenda van Dieren, Frank J. M. van Kuppeveld, Linda J. Saif, and Berend-Jan Bosch, 2018. Broad receptor engagement of an emerging global coronavirus may potentiate its diverse cross-species transmissibility