Friday, March 29

Detected the first case in the world of COVID in a wild river otter in Valencia


Researchers from the CEU Cardenal Herrera University (CEU UCH) in Valencia, the Valencia Institute of Biomedicine (CSIC) and the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) have detected the first case of SARS-CoV-2 in a European river otter. It is a specimen of Eurasian river otter (Lutra lutra), whose remains were found near a reservoir in the Valencian Community.

The finding represents the first case of detection of the virus in this wild species worldwide, and has just been published in the international scientific journal Frontiers in Veterinary Science. Virus detection was performed using two different types of PCR tests on RNA extracted from the animal’s nasopharynx by swab and from lung tissue and mediastinal lymph nodes.

According to Consuelo Rubio, principal investigator of the Molecular Virology Group at CEU UCH and co-author of the work, “in the sequencing of the virus, we discovered changes that had already been identified in samples from human patients, which points to the human origin of the detected virus. in this wild otter, although their specific combination was different. The contagion could have occurred through contact with wastewater contaminated with the virus present in the river area inhabited by the otter.

In the investigation, samples from the remains of two other otters found in distant areas were analyzed, which were negative.

First cases in wild animals in Europe

This team made up of researchers from the CEU UCH, the IBV-CSIC and the UAB also detected two positive cases of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in wild American mink in two rivers in the province of Castellón in May last year. These were the first cases in Europe of the virus in wild animals, which had not been in direct contact with infected people.

Already then, in the article published in the journal Animals, the researchers raised the possible origin of contagion by contact of these aquatic life animals with contaminated wastewater in river areas.

“Different animal species have been involved in the three outbreaks of acute respiratory syndrome caused by other coronaviruses in previous epidemics in 2005, 2012 and 2019. But in relation to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, our findings in specimens from both mink and of otters highlight the need to establish a surveillance system for this coronavirus in wild mustelids”, Rubio comments.

“This would make it possible to assess the risk that these animals could become SARS-CoV-2 reservoirs, giving rise to new mutations of the virus that could infect humans or other wild species in case of contact with infected mustelids,” he concludes.



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