Compellingly high SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility of Golden Syrian hamsters suggests multiple zoonotic infections of pet hamsters during the COVID-19 pandemic

  1. Claudia Blaurock
  2. Angele Breithaupt
  3. Saskia Weber
  4. Claudia Wylezich
  5. Markus Keller
  6. Björn-Patrick Mohl
  7. Dirk Görlich
  8. Martin H. Groschup
  9. Balal Sadeghi
  10. Dirk Höper
  11. Thomas C. Mettenleiter
  12. Anne Balkema-Buschmann

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Abstract

Golden Syrian hamsters ( Mesocricetus auratus ) are used as a research model for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Millions of Golden Syrian hamsters are also kept as pets in close contact to humans. To determine the minimum infective dose (MID) for assessing the zoonotic transmission risk, and to define the optimal infection dose for experimental studies, we orotracheally inoculated hamsters with SARS-CoV-2 doses from 1 * 10 5 to 1 * 10 −4 tissue culture infectious dose 50 (TCID 50 ). Body weight and virus shedding were monitored daily. 1 * 10 −3 TCID 50 was defined as the MID, and this was still sufficient to induce virus shedding at levels up to 10 2.75 TCID 50 /ml, equaling the estimated MID for humans. Virological and histological data revealed 1 * 10 2 TCID 50 as the optimal dose for experimental infections. This compelling high susceptibility leading to productive infections in Golden Syrian hamsters must be considered as a potential source of SARS-CoV-2 infection for humans that come into close contact with pet hamsters.

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  1. Version published to 10.1038/s41598-022-19222-4
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2022.04.19.488826: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsEuthanasia Agents: At 14 dpi, hamsters were euthanized by deep isoflurane anaesthesia, cardiac exsanguination and cervical dislocation, and nasal conchae, trachea and lung samples were collected and stored at -80°C for virological analysis.
    IRB: Ethical statement: Ethical approval for this study was obtained from the competent authority of the Federal State of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany upon consultation with the Ethic Committee of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (file number: 7221.3-1.1-049/20), on the basis of national and European legislation, namely the EU council directive 2010/63/EU.
    IACUC: Animal studies are continuously monitored by the Animal Welfare Officer and were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)
    Sex as a biological variableAnimal studies: Male Golden Syrian hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus), 5-7 weeks old with a body weight of 80 – 100 g, were obtained from Janvier Labs, France.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Cell Line Authenticationnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Experimental Models: Cell Lines
    SentencesResources
    Virus propagation was maintained in Vero E6 cells in DMEM supplemented with 2% FCS.
    Vero E6
    suggested: RRID:CVCL_XD71)
    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Statistical analyses were performed using MedCalc for Windows, version 19.4 (MedCalc Software, Ostend, Belgium). p-value < 0.01 was regarded as statistically significant.
    MedCalc
    suggested: (MedCalc, RRID:SCR_015044)
    LFDs were imaged and densitometry was performed on the C and T bands using ImageJ (ImageJ 1.52a
    ImageJ
    suggested: (ImageJ, RRID:SCR_003070)
    Data were analyzed using GraphPad Prism (version 9; GraphPad Software, Inc., CA, USA) and SPSS software (IBM Corp.
    GraphPad Prism
    suggested: (GraphPad Prism, RRID:SCR_002798)
    GraphPad
    suggested: (GraphPad Prism, RRID:SCR_002798)
    SPSS
    suggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)

    Results from OddPub: Thank you for sharing your data.

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No funding statement was detected.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  3. Version published to 10.1101/2022.04.19.488826v1 on bioRxiv