A new study reveals that common garden animals in the UK, such as hedgehogs, rabbits and even the domestic cat, can harbor new coronavirus strains.
Researchers in the UK used machine learning predict associations between 411 coronavirus strains and 876 potential host species of mammals.
His machine learning model integrated features extracted from genomes, such as the structure of proteins, as well as ecological and other traits.
The results have “implicated” the common hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus), the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) and the domestic cat (Felis catus) as predicted hosts for the new coronaviruses.
Among the “top priority” is the lesser Asian yellow bat (Scotophilus kuhlii), a known coronavirus host that is common in East Asia but is not well studied.
Possible levels of next-generation coronavirus in wild and domesticated animals “may have been underestimated,” experts at the University of Liverpool say.
In the photo, a European wild hedgehog. The potential scale of the new generation of coronavirus in wild and domesticated animals may have been underestimated, suggests a machine learning study published in Nature Communications
Predicting which animals could be the source of a future coronavirus outbreak may help reduce the risk of occurring in human populations.
“Our results demonstrate the large underestimation of the potential scale of the new generation of coronavirus in wild and domesticated animals,” the researchers say in their article, published in Nature Communications.
“These hosts represent new targets for surveillance of new human pathogenic coronaviruses.”
According to the team, there may be 30 times more host species than are currently known and may harbor new strains of SARS-CoV-2.
Their analysis also suggests that there are at least 11 times more associations between mammalian species and coronavirus strains than the empirical observations they have shown so far.
In addition, they estimate that there are more than 40 times more mammal species with four or more coronavirus strains than previously observed.
For example, the Asian palm civet and the larger horseshoe bat are expected to host 32 and 68 different coronaviruses, respectively.
European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus). The researchers say in their paper: “Our results also involve the common hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus), the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) and the domestic cat (Felis catus) as predicted hosts for SARS-CoV-2”
In addition to the hedgehog and rabbit, predicted hosts in which SARS-CoV-2 could recombine with other coronaviruses include the dromedary camel, which is the major route of transmission of MERS-CoV to humans.
The hedgehog and rabbit have been previously confirmed as hosts of other betacoronaviruses, although these “have no appreciable importance to human health,” the team adds.
Some mammals identified in the study as potential hosts for new coronavirus strains, such as horseshoe bats, palm civets, and pangolins, have already been linked to SARS-CoV-1, which caused the outbreak of SARS. 2003, or SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19.
Evidence already suggests that SARS-CoV-2 originated in horseshoe bats, although the virus is likely to pass to humans through pangolins, a scaly mammal that is often confused with a reptile.
Meanwhile, the masked palm civet was found to carry SARS-CoV-1, the coronavirus that killed 775 people and infected more than 8,000 worldwide during the 2003 epidemic.
New coronaviruses can arise when two different strains co-infect an animal, causing the recombination of viral genetic material.
SARS-CoV-2 appears to be a recent mixture, or genetic recombination, of coronavirus.
As a result of this recombination, one of the SARS-CoV-2 proteins allows the virus to enter human cells.
Despite the massive deployment of Covid-19 vaccines, the University of Liverpool team said the recombination of other coronaviruses with SARS-CoV-2 is “the immediate threat to public health”.
The research paper says, “Among the highest priorities is the smaller Asian yellow bat [Scotophilus kuhlii, pictured], a well-known coronavirus host, common in East Asia but little studied ‘
Illustration showing the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, the virus that causes Covid-19. According to experts at the University of Liverpool, there may be 30 times more host species than are currently known and which may harbor new strains of SARS-CoV-2.
This recombination could give rise to a virus with all the worst aspects of the different viruses of the coronavirus family (coronaviridae).
“This recombination could easily produce new viruses with SARS-CoV-2 infectivity and additional pathogenicity or viral tropism from other sites of coronaviridae,” they say.
However, there is a wide range of mammalian species “that are not yet associated with the recombination of SARS-CoV-2,” but which are expected to harbor SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses, according to experts. .
Understanding how different mammals are susceptible to different coronaviruses could provide information on where recombination might occur.
SARS-CoV-2 is likely to have its ancestral origins in a bat species, but may have reached humans through an intermediate species, such as pangolins, a squamous mammal often confused for a reptile (a the picture)
The authors acknowledge that their results are based on limited data on coronavirus genomes and virus and host associations, and that there are study biases for certain animal species, which present uncertainty in predictions.
However, identifying potentially high-risk species for the generation of new coronavirus strains may aid surveillance.
“This information could help inform prevention and mitigation strategies and provide a vital early warning system for future new coronaviruses,” they say.
Researchers at the World Health Organization admitted earlier this month that their research mission to Wuhan will not achieve its goal of revealing how the coronavirus jumped from animals to humans, meaning it is possible that we never know its origin.
Scientists in China believe that SARS-CoV-2 came from bats
The human COVID-19 SARS-CoV-2 virus separated from its closest known relative, another coronavirus from a horseshoe bat (pictured), about 30 to 40 years ago, according to the University of Sydney, Simon Hothe, who most likely passed on to humans recently
Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the People’s Liberation Army and the Pasteur Institute in Shanghai concluded that the coronavirus may have come from bats.
In a statement, the team said: “The natural host of the Wuhan coronavirus could be a bat … but there may be an unknown intermediary between bats and humans.
Research published in the Lancet also determined that bats were the most likely original host of the virus after sampling the lungs of nine patients in Wuhan.
The team suggested that the bats transmitted the disease to an “intermediate” host that was at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan before moving on to the “terminal host,” that is, humans.
Authorities have pointed to the blame for food markets in Wuhan, the Chinese city at the center of the outbreak that scientists are scrambling to contain.
Rodents and bats, among other animals, are slaughtered and sold in traditional “wet markets,” which tourists flock to to see the “real” side of the country.