Reports: MERS-CoV found in Saudi patient's camel

Monday, November 11, 2013

Reports: MERS-CoV found in Saudi patient's camel

Nov 11, 2013

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Media reports today said the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) has been detected in a camel linked to a human case in Saudi Arabia. If confirmed, the finding will mark the first time the virus has clearly been found in an animal and will strengthen the suspicion that camels are a source of human infections.
The camel was tested in the investigation of a MERS case in a 43-year-old man from Jeddah, whose illness was reported last week, according to a Canadian Press report that quoted Ziad Memish, MD, the Saudi deputy minister for public health. Testing was by polymerase chain reaction.
Memish said the man had a history of contact with sick animals that he owned and added that testing of other animals belonging to him was still under way.
The Saudi Ministry of Health (MOH) said it was working to isolate the virus and compare its genome with that of a sample from the 43-year-old man, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report.
If the two isolates are identical, "this would be a first scientific discovery worldwide, and a door to identify the source of the virus," the ministry was quoted as saying.

Previous evidence in camels

Recent studies showed that camels in Oman, Egypt, and the Canary Islands carried antibodies to MERS-CoV or a closely related virus, but the virus itself had not been found in a camel or any other animal until now.
In August a team of US and Saudi scientists, including Memish, reported finding a viral fragment in bat feces in Saudi Arabia that matched up with MERS-CoV, but other scientists said the fragment was so small that it might have represented only a related virus.
Just which animals serve as the natural reservoir or hiding place of MERS-CoV, and which animals pass it to humans, have been two of the biggest mysteries about the virus. Scientists have speculated that bats, which harbor other coronaviruses, may be the reservoir and that camels may provide a pathway for the virus to reach humans.
A few previous MERS patients were reported to have had contact with camels and other farm animals. That was true in the case of a 61-year-old Qatari man reported in mid-October. Some of the animals were tested, but the virus was not detected.
Marion Koopmans, DVM, PhD, chief of virology at the National Institute of Public Health and Environment in the Netherlands, told CIDRAP News that if genetic sequence data confirm that the camel virus is MERS-CoV, it would be an important development and would point at the possible source.
"However, more work is needed to clarify how people are getting infected, as so far, apparently, very few people have animal contact, so the question remains how this virus spreads and how humans are getting infected," she said. She added that it should take only a day or two to get enough sequence data to confirm the findings.