Introduction
Since the 1930s, members of the family Coronaviridae have been identified in humans and many different animal species, such as cats, dogs, horses, pigs, cattle, mice, and fowl . In the last 20 years, three zoonotic coronaviruses have emerged into the human population:Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (SARS-CoV) in 2003, Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus(MERS-CoV) in 2012, and most recently, SARS-CoV-2 in 2019, which led to the so far most devastating pandemic of the 21stcentury . Since 2012, MERS-CoV has been detected in 27 countries, with 84.0 % of cases found in Saudi Arabia, and a case fatality ratio of approximately 34.5 % (WHO, 2019). Similar to other coronaviruses, MERS-CoV presumably originated from bats; however, the main reservoir and primary source of human infections are dromedaries (Camelus dromedarius ) . Although dromedaries usually remain asymptomatic, or develop only mild symptoms due to MERS-CoV infection, it has been shown that they can shed considerable amount of virus . Studies on Bactrian camels (Camelus bactrianus ), hybrid camels, alpacas (Vicugna pacos ), llamas (Lama glama ), and even pigs (Sus scrofa ), have revealed that these animals are also susceptible to MERS-CoV infection (Adney et al., 2019; Lau et al., 2020; Reusken et al., 2016; Vergara-Alert et al., 2017). In contrast, studies on sheep, goats, cattle, horses, and chickens have indicated that, although sheep and goats may produce antibodies to MERS-CoV, none of these species effectively shed the virus (Adney et al., 2016; Hemida et al., 2013; Reusken, Ababneh et al., 2013; Vergara-Alert et al., 2017). A study about domestic mammals in contact with infected dromedaries found MERS-CoV nucleic acid in nasal swabs not only from sheep and goats, but also from a cow and donkeys (Kandeil et al., 2019). To provide more information about the potential exposure and infection of other livestock, we performed a survey for MERS-CoV at a livestock market in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as live animal markets are known to be common sources of virus spillover.