Surveillance of coronavirus in wild mammals seized and rescued by the National Forest and Wildlife Service of Peru

Abstract

Coronaviruses are common around the world and infect a wide variety of animals, including domestic and wild ones. They are characterized by causing respiratory, enteric, hepatic, and neurological diseases of varying severity, from asymptomatic to severe. Wild animals play a crucial role in this group of viruses since they can act as hosts or reservoirs for pathogenic species of humans and domestic animals. The purpose of this study was to molecularly identify coronaviruses present in wild mammals seized and rescued by the National Forestry and Wildlife Service (SERFOR) of Peru. We molecularly analyzed tracheal and rectal swabs from 90 wild mammals seized and/or rescued by SERFOR, partially amplifying the coronavirus RdRp gene. Ten of the 90 animals studied (11.1%) were positive only for Alphacoronavirus. These were non-human primates (Aotus sp., Sapajus apella, and Saimiri sciureus), the crab-eating raccoon (Procyon cancrivorus), and the South American sea lion (Otaria flavescens). The partial sequence analysis of the RdRp gene revealed that nine sequences belonged to the Pedacovirus subgenus and shared 99.1% nucleotide identity with the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), and only one sequence belonged to the Tegacovirus subgenus and shared 95.6% identity with the Feline coronavirus (FCoV). The results show that various wild mammal species from Peru can act as hosts for coronaviruses capable of infecting domestic species. Due to this, it is necessary to implement measures that help us identify the genera and species of coronaviruses in these species to prevent and contain future epidemics or pandemics resulting from the high rate of recombination and mutation of this virus.