The ecology of viruses in urban rodents with a focus on SARS-CoV-2
| Title: | The ecology of viruses in urban rodents with a focus on SARS-CoV-2 |
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| Authors: | Adam M. Fisher, George Airey, Yuchen Liu, Matthew Gemmell, Jordan Thomas, Eleanor G. Bentley, Mark A. Whitehead, William A. Paxton, Georgios Pollakis, Steve Paterson, Mark Viney |
| Source: | Emerging Microbes and Infections, Vol 12, Iss 1 (2023) |
| Publisher Information: | Taylor & Francis Group, 2023. |
| Publication Year: | 2023 |
| Collection: | LCC:Infectious and parasitic diseases LCC:Microbiology |
| Subject Terms: | Urban, rodents, virus, virome, COVID, zoonosis, Infectious and parasitic diseases, RC109-216, Microbiology, QR1-502 |
| More Details: | Wild animals are naturally infected with a range of viruses, some of which may be zoonotic. During the human COVID pandemic there was also the possibility of rodents acquiring SARS-CoV-2 from people, so-called reverse zoonoses. To investigate this, we sampled rats (Rattus norvegicus) and mice (Apodemus sylvaticus) from urban environments in 2020 during the human COVID-19 pandemic. We metagenomically sequenced lung and gut tissue and faeces for viruses, PCR screened for SARS-CoV-2, and serologically surveyed for anti-SARS-CoV-2 Spike antibodies. We describe the range of viruses that we found in these two rodent species. We found no molecular evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection, though in rats we found lung antibody responses and evidence of neutralization ability that are consistent with rats being exposed to SARS-CoV-2 and/or exposed to other viruses that result in cross-reactive antibodies. |
| Document Type: | article |
| File Description: | electronic resource |
| Language: | English |
| ISSN: | 22221751 2222-1751 |
| Relation: | https://doaj.org/toc/2222-1751 |
| DOI: | 10.1080/22221751.2023.2217940 |
| Access URL: | https://doaj.org/article/94d6932321df48ce87cd70f8935df5e8 |
| Accession Number: | edsdoj.94d6932321df48ce87cd70f8935df5e8 |
| Database: | Directory of Open Access Journals |
| ISSN: | 22221751 |
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| DOI: | 10.1080/22221751.2023.2217940 |
| Published in: | Emerging Microbes and Infections |
| Language: | English |