scholarly journals Experimental Susceptibility of North American Raccoons (Procyon lotor) and Striped Skunks (Mephitis mephitis) to SARS-CoV-2

2022 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raquel Francisco ◽  
Sonia M. Hernandez ◽  
Daniel G. Mead ◽  
Kayla G. Adcock ◽  
Sydney C. Burke ◽  
...  

Recent spillback events of SARS-CoV-2 from humans to animals has raised concerns about it becoming endemic in wildlife. A sylvatic cycle of SARS-CoV-2 could present multiple opportunities for repeated spillback into human populations and other susceptible wildlife. Based on their taxonomy and natural history, two native North American wildlife species —the striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis) and the raccoon (Procyon lotor) —represent a high likelihood of susceptibility and ecological opportunity of becoming infected with SARS-CoV-2. Eight skunks and raccoons were each intranasally inoculated with one of two doses of the virus (103 PFU and 105 PFU) and housed in pairs. To evaluate direct transmission, a naïve animal was added to each inoculated pair 48 h post-inoculation. Four control animals of each species were handled like the experimental groups. At predetermined intervals, we collected nasal and rectal swabs to quantify virus shed via virus isolation and detect viral RNA via rRT-PCR and blood for serum neutralization. Lastly, animals were euthanized at staggered intervals to describe disease progression through histopathology and immunohistochemistry. No animals developed clinical disease. All intranasally inoculated animals seroconverted, suggesting both species are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection. The highest titers in skunks and raccoons were 1:128 and 1:64, respectively. Low quantities of virus were isolated from 2/8 inoculated skunks for up to day 5 post-inoculation, however no virus was isolated from inoculated raccoons or direct contacts of either species. Neither species had gross lesions, but recovering mild chronic pneumonia consistent with viral insult was recorded histologically in 5/8 inoculated skunks. Unlike another SARS-CoV-2 infection trial in these species, we detected neutralizing antibodies in inoculated raccoons; thus, future wildlife serologic surveillance results must be interpreted with caution. Due to the inability to isolate virus from raccoons, the lack of evidence of direct transmission between both species, and low amount of virus shed by skunks, it seems unlikely for SARS-CoV-2 to become established in raccoon and skunk populations and for virus to spillback into humans. Continued outbreaks in non-domestic species, wild and captive, highlight that additional research on the susceptibility of SARS-CoV-2 in wildlife, especially musteloidea, and of conservation concern, is needed.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raquel Francisco ◽  
Sonia M. Hernandez ◽  
Daniel G. Mead ◽  
Kayla G. Adcock ◽  
Sydney C. Burke ◽  
...  

AbstractSkunks and raccoons were intranasally inoculated or indirectly exposed to SARS-CoV-2. Both species are susceptible to infection; however, the lack of, and low quantity of infectious virus shed by raccoons and skunks, respectively, and lack of cage mate transmission in both species, suggest that neither species are competent SARS-CoV-2 reservoirs.Article Summary LineExperimental SARS-CoV-2 inoculation of North American raccoons and striped skunks showed susceptibility to infection, but transient, low-level shedding suggests that neither species is likely to be a competent natural reservoir.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 321-332
Author(s):  
Yunbo Liu ◽  
Xu Zhang ◽  
Lin Yang

Adeno-associated virus (AAV) is a promising vector for in vivo gene therapy because of its excellent safety profile and ability to mediate stable gene expression in human subjects. However, there are still numerous challenges that need to be resolved before this gene delivery vehicle is used in clinical applications, such as the inability of AAV to effectively target specific tissues, preexisting neutralizing antibodies in human populations, and a limited AAV packaging capacity. Over the past two decades, much genetic modification work has been performed with the AAV capsid gene, resulting in a large number of variants with modified characteristics, rendering AAV a versatile vector for more efficient gene therapy applications for different genetic diseases.


2006 ◽  
Vol 120 (3) ◽  
pp. 342
Author(s):  
Serge Larivière ◽  
Lyle R. Walton ◽  
François Messier

Striped Skunks (Mephitis mephitis) are important predators of duck eggs in the Canadian prairies. We estimated the impact of individual Striped Skunks on duck nests by intensive observations of foraging movements and depredation of duck nests in southern Saskatchewan, 1993-1994. Nightly, skunk movements were variable (range 0-20 km per night), and did not differ among seasons for females, or between males and females during the parturition/rearing season. Overall, nightly movement of Striped Skunks averaged 7.4 km for females (SD = 5.9 km, n = 20 females) and 6.7 km for males (SD = 3.2 km, n = 5 males). During 1,873 h of radio-tracking, we observed depredation of 10 duck nests by 8 skunks (7 F, 1 M). Using our observed estimate of one depredation for every 187 h, and averaged nightly activity of 8-10 h per night, we estimated that individual skunks find one duck nest every 19-23 nights. Thus, during the 60-day nesting season for ducks (mid-May to mid-July), individual skunks probably find 2-3 duck nests. These observations reinforce the growing evidence that, at normal duck nest densities (<2.5 nests/ha), depredation of eggs by Striped Skunks is opportunistic, and the impact of Striped Skunks on duck nests is a direct function of Striped Skunk abundance.


1996 ◽  
Vol 82 (1) ◽  
pp. 172 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. P. Dubey ◽  
A. N. Hamir ◽  
M. Niezgoda ◽  
C. E. Rupprecht

2002 ◽  
Vol 88 (5) ◽  
pp. 1027 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheila M. Mitchell ◽  
Dennis J. Richardson ◽  
M. Andy Cheadle ◽  
Anne M. Zajac ◽  
David S. Lindsay

1972 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernest S. Burch

AbstractThe caribou/wild reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) has been a major resource for many human populations in northern North America and Eurasia for tens of thousands of years. The species is generally represented by prehistorians as providing an ample, easily exploited, and highly reliable resource base for humans. In this paper a number of specific assumptions leading to this view are examined in the light of new data on North American caribou and caribou-hunting Eskimo groups. The conventional picture is found to be largely untenable.


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