From People to Panthera : Natural SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Tigers and Lions at the Bronx Zoo

  1. Denise McAloose
  2. Melissa Laverack
  3. Leyi Wang
  4. Mary Lea Killian
  5. Leonardo C. Caserta
  6. Fangfeng Yuan
  7. Patrick K. Mitchell
  8. Krista Queen
  9. Matthew R. Mauldin
  10. Brittany D. Cronk
  11. Susan L. Bartlett
  12. John M. Sykes
  13. Stephanie Zec
  14. Tracy Stokol
  15. Karen Ingerman
  16. Martha A. Delaney
  17. Richard Fredrickson
  18. Marina Ivančić
  19. Melinda Jenkins-Moore
  20. Katie Mozingo
  21. Kerrie Franzen
  22. Nichole Hines Bergeson
  23. Laura Goodman
  24. Haibin Wang
  25. Ying Fang
  26. Colleen Olmstead
  27. Colleen McCann
  28. Patrick Thomas
  29. Erin Goodrich
  30. François Elvinger
  31. David C. Smith
  32. Suxiang Tong
  33. Sally Slavinski
  34. Paul P. Calle
  35. Karen Terio
  36. Mia Kim Torchetti
  37. Diego G. Diel

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Abstract

The human-animal-environment interface of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is an important aspect of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic that requires robust One Health-based investigations. Despite this, few reports describe natural infections in animals or directly link them to human infections using genomic data. In the present study, we describe the first cases of natural SARS-CoV-2 infection in tigers and lions in the United States and provide epidemiological and genetic evidence for human-to-animal transmission of the virus. Our data show that tigers and lions were infected with different genotypes of SARS-CoV-2, indicating two independent transmission events to the animals. Importantly, infected animals shed infectious virus in respiratory secretions and feces. A better understanding of the susceptibility of animal species to SARS-CoV-2 may help to elucidate transmission mechanisms and identify potential reservoirs and sources of infection that are important in both animal and human health.

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  1. Version published to 10.1128/mbio.02220-20
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.07.22.213959: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    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.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

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  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.07.22.213959v2 on bioRxiv
  4. Version published to 10.1101/2020.07.22.213959v1 on bioRxiv