2018 Countrywide Survey for MERS-Coronavirus Antibodies in Dromedaries and Humans in Pakistan

8 Pages·2018·0.91 MB·English

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Countrywide Survey for MERS-Coronavirus Antibodies in Dromedaries
and Humans in Pakistan

Ali Zohaib1,2 • Muhammad Saqib3 • Muhammad Ammar Athar4 • Jing Chen1 • Awais-ur-Rahman Sial5 •
Saeed Khan6 • Zeeshan Taj7 • Halima Sadia8 • Usman Tahir8 • Muhammad Haleem Tayyab3 •
Muhammad Asif Qureshi6 • Muhammad Khalid Mansoor9 • Muhammad Ahsan Naeem10 • Bing-Jie Hu1 •
Bilal Ahmed Khan6 • Ikram Din Ujjan11 • Bei Li1 • Wei Zhang1 • Yun Luo1,2 • Yan Zhu1 • Cecilia Waruhiu1,2 •
Iahtasham Khan12 • Xing-Lou Yang1 • Muhammad Sohail Sajid3 • Victor Max Corman13,14 • Bing Yan1 •
Zheng-Li Shi1

Received: 26 July 2018 / Accepted: 3 September 2018
� Wuhan Institute of Virology, CAS and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018

Abstract
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a zoonotic pathogen capable of causing severe respiratory
disease in humans. Although dromedary camels are considered as a major reservoir host, the MERS-CoV infection
dynamics in camels are not fully understood. Through surveillance in Pakistan, nasal (n = 776) and serum (n = 1050)
samples were collected from camels between November 2015 and February 2018. Samples were collected from animal
markets, free-roaming herds and abattoirs. An in-house ELISA was developed to detect IgG against MERS-CoV. A total of
794 camels were found seropositive for MERS-CoV. Prevalence increased with the age and the highest seroprevalence was
recorded in camels aged [ 10 years (81.37%) followed by those aged 3.1–10 years (78.65%) and B 3 years (58.19%).
Higher prevalence was observed in female (78.13%) as compared to male (70.70%). Of the camel nasal swabs, 22 were
found to be positive by RT-qPCR though with high Ct values. Moreover, 2,409 human serum samples were also collected
from four provinces of Pakistan during 2016–2017. Among the sampled population, 840 humans were camel herders.
Although we found a high rate of MERS-CoV antibody positive dromedaries (75.62%) in Pakistan, no neutralizing
antibodies were detected in humans with and without contact to camels.

Keywords Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) � Camel � Human � Pakistan

& Zheng-Li Shi