CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China.
Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing, China.
College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China.
Key Laboratory of Animal Health Aquaculture and Environmental Control, Guangzhou, China.
Key Laboratory of Etiology and Epidemiology of Emerging Infectious Diseases in Universities of Shandong, Taishan Medical College, Taian, China.
Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore, Singapore.
Guangdong Key Laboratory of Animal Conservation and Resource Utilization, Guangdong Public Laboratory of Wild Animal Conservation and Utilization, Guangdong Institute of Applied Biological Resources, Guangzhou, China.
School of Public Health, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
Guangdong Key Laboratory of Laboratory Animals, Guangdong Laboratory Animals Monitoring Institute, Guangzhou, China.
Cross-species transmission of viruses from wildlife animal reservoirs poses a marked threat to human and animal health <sup>1</sup> . Bats have been recognized as one of the most important reservoirs for emerging viruses and the transmission of a coronavirus that originated in bats to humans via intermediate hosts was responsible for the high-impact emerging zoonosis, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) <sup>2-10</sup> . Here we provide virological, epidemiological, evolutionary and experimental evidence that a novel HKU2-related bat coronavirus, swine acute diarrhoea syndrome coronavirus (SADS-CoV), is the aetiological agent that was responsible for a large-scale outbreak of fatal disease in pigs in China that has caused the death of 24,693 piglets across four farms. Notably, the outbreak began in Guangdong province in the vicinity of the origin of the SARS pandemic. Furthermore, we identified SADS-related CoVs with 96-98% sequence identity in 9.8% (58 out of 591) of anal swabs collected from bats in Guangdong province during 2013-2016, predominantly in horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus spp.) that are known reservoirs of SARS-related CoVs. We found that there were striking similarities between the SADS and SARS outbreaks in geographical, temporal, ecological and aetiological settings. This study highlights the importance of identifying coronavirus diversity and distribution in bats to mitigate future outbreaks that could threaten livestock, public health and economic growth.
Cross Species TransmissionExtraction confidence 0.95
Key finding
An HKU2-related coronavirus originating from horseshoe bats was transmitted to pigs, causing a large outbreak of fatal swine acute diarrhoea syndrome in Guangdong, China.
We provide virological, epidemiological, evolutionary and experimental evidence that a novel HKU2-related bat coronavirus, swine acute diarrhoea syndrome coronavirus (SADS-CoV), is the aetiological agent responsible for a large-scale outbreak of fatal disease in pigs in China. Furthermore, we identified SADS-related CoVs with 96-98% sequence identity in anal swabs from bats in Guangdong province, predominantly in horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus spp.).
SADS-CoV sequences from pigs were 96–98% identical to HKU2-related bat coronaviruses detected in horseshoe bats in Guangdong, supporting the bat origin and cross-species evolution of SADS-CoV.
We identified SADS-related CoVs with 96–98% sequence identity in 9.8% (58 out of 591) of anal swabs collected from bats in Guangdong province during 2013–2016, predominantly in horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus spp.) that are known reservoirs of SARS-related CoVs.
A large-scale outbreak of fatal disease in pigs was caused by SADS-CoV, a bat-derived HKU2-related coronavirus, resulting in 24,693 piglet deaths across four farms in China.
Here we provide virological, epidemiological, evolutionary and experimental evidence that a novel HKU2-related bat coronavirus, swine acute diarrhoea syndrome coronavirus (SADS-CoV), is the aetiological agent that was responsible for a large-scale outbreak of fatal disease in pigs in China that has caused the death of 24,693 piglets across four farms.
SADS-related coronaviruses closely related to SADS-CoV were detected in horseshoe bats in Guangdong province, indicating that bats function as the natural reservoir for these viruses.
Furthermore, we identified SADS-related CoVs with 96-98% sequence identity in 9.8% (58 out of 591) of anal swabs collected from bats in Guangdong province during 2013-2016, predominantly in horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus spp.) that are known reservoirs of SARS-related CoVs.
Method
field sampling; molecular detection
Sample type
anal swabs
Geographic raw
Guangdong province
Country inferred
China
Zoonotic Surveillance1 records
Zoonotic SurveillanceExtraction confidence 0.90
Key finding
Surveillance of bats in Guangdong province found HKU2-related coronaviruses closely related to SADS-CoV in 9.8% of anal swabs, mainly from horseshoe bats.
We identified SADS-related CoVs with 96-98% sequence identity in 9.8% (58 out of 591) of anal swabs collected from bats in Guangdong province during 2013-2016, predominantly in horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus spp.).
Sample type
anal swabs
Geographic raw
Guangdong province
Country inferred
China
Citation context
References
28 references
Reference network
Force-directed citation graph. OmniVira-indexed references are prioritized and recursively expanded up to three steps.
Identification of diverse alphacoronaviruses and genomic characterization of a novel severe acute respiratory syndrome-like coronavirus from bats in China
Complete genome sequence of bat coronavirus HKU2 from Chinese horseshoe bats revealed a much smaller spike gene with a different evolutionary lineage from the rest of the genome
