Common British garden animals such as hedgehogs, rabbits and even the domestic cat have the potential to harbor new strains of coronavirus, a new study reveals.
British researchers used machine learning to predict associations between 411 strains of coronavirus and 876 potential mammalian hosts.
Their machine learning model integrated features extracted from genomes, such as protein structure, as well as ecological and other features.
The results have ‘implied’ the common hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus), the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) and the domestic cat (Felis catus) as predicted hosts for new coronaviruses.
One of the ‘highest priority’ is the little Asian yellow bat (Scotophilus kuhlii), a well-known coronavirus host common in East Asia but not well studied.
The potential size of the new generation of coronavirus in wild and domestic animals “may be greatly undervalued,” say experts at the University of Liverpool.
Pictured, a wild European hedgehog. The potential magnitude of the generation of new coronavirus in wild and domestic animals may be greatly underappreciated, suggests a machine learning study published in Nature Communications.
Predicting which animals could potentially be the source of a future coronavirus outbreak can help reduce the risk of emergence in human populations.
“Our results demonstrate the major underestimation of the potential size of new coronavirus generation in wild and domestic animals,” say the researchers in their paper published in Nature Communications.
“These hosts are new targets for the surveillance of new human pathogenic coronaviruses.”
There may be 30 times more host species than currently known that have the potential to harbor new species of SARS-CoV-2, the team says.
Their analysis also suggests that there are at least 11 times more associations between mammalian species and coronavirus strains than empirical observations have shown so far.
In addition, they estimate that there are more than 40 times more mammalian species with four or more strains of coronavirus than previously observed.
For example, the Asian palm civet and the horseshoe bat are predicted to harbor 32 and 68 different coronaviruses, respectively.
European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus). Researchers say in their paper: ‘Our results also implicate 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 may recombine with other coronaviruses include the dromedary camel, the major route of MERS-CoV transmission to humans.
The hedgehog and rabbit have previously been confirmed as hosts for other beta-corona viruses, although these “have no significant significance for human health,” the team added.
Some mammals identified in the study as potential hosts for new strains of coronavirus – such as horseshoe bats, palm civets and pangolins – have already been linked to SARS-CoV-1, which triggered the 2003 SARS outbreak, or SARS-CoV-2 , that causes Covid-19.
There is already some evidence that SARS-CoV-2 originated in horseshoe bats, although the virus is likely to have passed to humans through pangolins, a scaly mammal 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 infect an animal together, causing the viral genetic material to recombine.
SARS-CoV-2 appears to be a recent mix, or genetic recombination, of coronaviruses.
As a result of this recombination, one of the SARS-CoV-2 proteins causes the virus to enter the cells of humans.
Despite the massive rollout of Covid-19 vaccines, the University of Liverpool team say the recombination of other coronaviruses with SARS-CoV-2 is the “immediate threat to public health.”
![The research paper says, “One of the highest priority is the little Asian yellow bat [Scotophilus kuhlii, pictured], a well-known host of the coronavirus, common in East Asia, but not well studied '](https://i0.wp.com/i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/02/16/16/39362292-9266263-The_research_paper_says_Amongst_the_highest_priority_is_the_less-a-28_1613491962660.jpg?resize=560%2C372&ssl=1)
The research paper says, “One of the highest priority is the little Asian yellow bat [Scotophilus kuhlii, pictured], a well-known host of the coronavirus, common in East Asia, but not well studied ‘
Illustration of 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 currently known that have the potential to harbor new species of SARS-CoV-2.
This recombination could give rise to a virus with all the worse aspects of various viruses in the coronavirus family (coronaviridae).
“Such recombination could easily produce new viruses with both the infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 and additional pathogenicity or viral tropism from elsewhere in the coronaviridae,” they say.
However, a wide variety of mammalian species are “not yet associated with SARS-CoV-2 recombination,” but are predicted to contain SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses, the experts say.
Understanding how susceptible different mammals are to different coronaviruses could provide insight into where recombination can occur.
SARS-CoV-2 likely has its ancestral origins in a bat species, but may have reached humans through an intermediate species, such as pangolins – a scaly mammal often confused with a reptile (photo)
The authors acknowledge that their results are based on limited data on coronavirus genomes and virus-host associations, and that there are study biases for certain animal species, all of which involve uncertainty in the predictions.
However, the identification of potentially high-risk species for the generation of new coronavirus strains can support surveillance efforts.
“Such information could help inform prevention and mitigation strategies and provide an essential early warning system for future new coronaviruses,” they say.
Researchers from the World Health Organization admitted earlier this month that their fact-finding mission to Wuhan will not achieve the goal of revealing how the coronavirus jumped from animals to humans – meaning we may never know its origins.
Scientists in China believe that SARS-CoV-2 comes from bats
The human COVID-19 SARS-CoV-2 virus split from its closest known relative – another horseshoe bat coronavirus (pictured) – about 30 to 40 years ago, according to Professor Simon Hothe from the University of Sydney, the leap to humans has most likely happened more recently
Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the People’s Liberation Army and Institut Pasteur from 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 bats … but between bats and humans, there may be an unknown middleman.
Research published in The Lancet also determined that bats were the most likely original host of the virus after samples were taken from the lungs of nine patients in Wuhan.
The team suggested that bats pass the disease on to an “intermediate host” who was at the Huanan fish market in Wuhan before passing it on to the “final host” humans.
Authorities have blamed food markets in Wuhan, the Chinese city at the center of the outbreak that scientists are trying to contain.
Rodents and bats, among others, are slaughtered and sold in traditional ‘wet markets’, which tourists flock to to see the ‘real’ side of the country.