Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus in Dromedaries in Ethiopia Is Antigenically Different From the Middle East Isolate EMC.

ABSTRACT: Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) is an emerging respiratory disease caused by the MERS coronavirus (MERS-CoV). MERS has been endemic to Saudi Arabia since 2012. The reservoir of MERS-CoV is the dromedary camel, suggesting that MERS is primarily a zoonotic disease. MERS-CoV is common in dromedaries throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and East Africa as evidenced by neutralizing antibodies against MERS-CoV; however, human cases have remained limited to the Middle East. To better understand the cause of this difference, the virological properties of African camel MERS-CoV were analyzed based on the spike (S) protein in Ethiopia. Nasal swabs were collected from 258 young dromedaries (≤ 2 years old) in the Afar region of Ethiopia, of which 39 were positive for MERS-CoV, as confirme

SUBMITTER: Shirato K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6593072 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature