First detection of SARS CoV-2 like antibodies in domestic and wild
animals in Kenya
Abstract
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2),
etiological agent of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has
spread since December 2019, resulting in massive health and economic
crisis worldwide. While efforts to stop the pandemic are crucial,
collecting epidemiological data to help manage current and future
pandemics will be important. In addition to humans, serological and
molecular based studies have demonstrated SARS CoV-2 exposure in several
wild, domestic and farmed animals. For examples Shriner and the team
showed serologically an exposure of 40% to the white deer living in
close proximity to urban centers. Additional reports have also emerged
of susceptibility of animal’s species like cats, ferrets, raccoon dogs,
cynomolgus macaques, rhesus macaques, white-tailed deer, rabbits,
Egyptian fruit bats, and Syrian hamsters to SARS-CoV-2 infection.. It’s
worth emphasizing that these reports are based on experimental data
mostly derived from Europe, USA, South America and parts of Asia. In
limited instances natural infections of SARS-CoV-2 have been reported in
pet dogs, cats, tigers, lions, snow leopards, pumas, gorillas at zoos
and farmed mink and ferrets. The presence of the virus in animal species
and an understanding of whether these are natural or recent human to
animal transmissions is important. It’s possible that such transmission
could passage the virus or subject the virus to a different
immunological pressure thereby helping with the development of viral
variants in addition to being a host for future reservoirs of the virus.
In Kenya SARS-CoV-2 was first detected on March 12 th
2020 from imported human cases of persons who had travelled from the
United States. This was followed by detection of imported cases majorly
from China, Sweden and United Kingdom. Later infections were confirmed
in Nairobi and Mombasa suggesting further cases of disease importations
through the major ports of entry. However, no comparable data on animal
exposure have hitherto been generated in Kenya. To address this key
concern, we focused on three objectives; 1) development of a robust
antibody ELISA based on crude SARS-CoV-2 lysate. 2) SARS-CoV-2 serology
of domestic animals in Kenya. 3) Corroboration of the crude lysate based
seroprevalence data and a commercial ELISA kit based on the Spike
receptor binding domain (RBD) antigen. Our sample set included camel
sera (both pre- & post outbreak sera), as well as sera from cats and
dogs collected at the peak of the pandemic. Our results using the ELISA
based on crude SARS-CoV-2 lysate indicated SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in
camels (71%, N=145), cats 11% (N=16) and dogs (81%, N=36) with
varying titer levels.