Department of Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, King Faisal University, Al-Hasa, Saudi Arabia.
Department of Virology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafrelsheikh, Egypt.
Transbound Emerg Dis. 2020 Nov;67(6):2609-2614. doi: 10.1111/tbed.13610. Epub 2020 May 22.
The Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is an emergent respiratory virus. Dromedary camels are currently the only known reservoir of MERS-CoV and are capable of transmitting the virus within a herd. The role of semen in the transmission of MERS-CoV has never been investigated as yet, to the best of our knowledge. Our goal was to test semen collected from dromedary camels for MERS-CoV. A total of 67 seminal plasma samples from infertile and 13 from fertile dromedary camels were collected. The RNA was extracted from the samples and tested using commercial real-time PCR. Nine out of sixty-seven infertile animals (13.4%) were positive. The obtained PCR products were sequenced using the conserved MERS-CoV-N gene primers. MERS-CoV-RNA detected in seminal plasma was closely related to the lineage B. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report about the detection of MERS-CoV-RNA in camel's seminal plasma. Regular testing of semen of common male camels' used for insemination should be considered to avoid a possible spread of the virus through semen.
中东呼吸综合征冠状病毒（MERS-CoV）是一种新兴的呼吸道病毒。目前，单峰驼是唯一已知的 MERS-CoV 宿主，并且能够在畜群内传播该病毒。据我们所知，精液在 MERS-CoV 传播中的作用尚未得到研究。我们的目标是检测从单峰驼采集的精液中是否存在 MERS-CoV。共采集了 67 份不育单峰驼和 13 份可育单峰驼的精液样本。从样本中提取 RNA，并使用商业实时 PCR 进行检测。在 67 份不育动物样本中，有 9 份（13.4%）呈阳性。使用保守的 MERS-CoV-N 基因引物对获得的 PCR 产物进行测序。在精液中检测到的 MERS-CoV-RNA 与谱系 B 密切相关。据我们所知，这是首次在骆驼精液中检测到 MERS-CoV-RNA 的报告。应该定期检测用于人工授精的普通公驼的精液，以避免通过精液传播病毒。
