vaccine for fur farm animals under development

A vaccine providing protection from the coronavirus for minks and raccoon dogs (Nyctereutes procyonoides) is being developed by the Finnish Fur Breeders' Association in cooperation with the University of Helsinki.  According to current data, mink are easily susceptible to coronavirus. Under laboratory conditions, the virus has also infected raccoon dogs. Foxes are not known to have become infected. The vaccine is currently in the testing phase, and testing is expected to take several months. Researchers say that as of yet it is not possible to provide an estimate as to when the vaccine will be ready for production and distribution.

https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/coronavirus_vaccine_for_fur_farm_animals_under_development/11732812

Speaking of food- I read that China had found Covid 19 on ice cream recently.

Ice cream recalled in China after coronavirus found in cartons | WTTV CBS4Indy

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-01-gi-tract-vulnerable-covid-infection.html

For some, GI tract may be vulnerable to COVID-19 infection

by Jim Dryden, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine have found that patients with Barrett's esophagus may be vulnerable to coronavirus infection from what they swallow. Shown is an organoid built from tissue taken from patients with Barrett's esophagus. The cells resemble intestinal cells rather than normal esophagus cells. The red color notes the presence of a protein called actin that is found in intestinal cells, while the green marks the presence of the TMPRSS2 protein that binds to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Credit: Jeffrey Wade Brown

No evidence so far indicates that food or drinks can transmit the virus that causes COVID-19, but new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests that people with problems in the upper gastrointestinal (GI) tract may be vulnerable to infection after swallowing the virus.

Studying tissue from patients with a common disorder called Barrett's esophagus, the researchers found that although cells in a healthy esophagus cannot bind to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, esophageal cells from patients with Barrett's have receptors for the virus, and those cells can bind to and become infected by the virus that causes COVID-19.

The study is published online Jan. 20 in the journal Gastroenterology.

"There is no evidence yet that people with Barrett's esophagus have higher rates of COVID-19 or are at any greater risk, but part of the reason is because that hasn't been studied," said senior investigator Jason C. Mills, MD, Ph.D. "Now that we've connected these dots, it may be worthwhile to look and see whether people with Barrett's have higher rates of infection."

Part of the reason it's been considered safe to eat and drink most foods during the pandemic is that they are unlikely to carry viral particles. And even if some viral particles are attached to food, stomach acid neutralizes the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

But when stomach acid backs up, people develop a disorder called gastric reflux that can cause long-term damage to the esophagus. In those with reflux disease, which affects about one in five people in the U.S., acid from the stomach backs up into the esophagus, causing heartburn and damaging the lining of the esophagus. Over time, in some people with reflux, cells in the esophagus change and begin to resemble intestinal cells. Intestinal cells have receptors that can bind to the novel coronavirus, so Mills and his colleagues reasoned that in Barrett's patients, the cells that line the esophagus also would develop receptors that can bind to the virus and become infected.

In addition, standard medical management for patients with Barrett's esophagus is to suppress gastric acid secretions with drugs such as proton pump inhibitors. By reducing stomach acidity, those drugs may inadvertently make it possible for the virus to pass through the stomach and into the intestine, where even the normal, healthy cells carry receptors for SARS-CoV-2.

Many patients with COVID-19—most of whom contract it by breathing in the viral particles—develop GI symptoms such as abdominal pain and diarrhea. The virus also has been found in the stool of COVID-19 patients. But this new study demonstrates that under the right circumstances, the virus also may have an impact in the upper part of the GI tract. As a result, Mills—a professor of medicine, of developmental biology, and of pathology and immunology—and his team believe esophageal cells in Barrett's patients are potential gateways for infection.

"You can imagine that if someone already has low levels of the virus in their respiratory tract, that individual could swallow some respiratory secretions, and the virus could infect cells in the esophagus to make them sicker that way," said Ramon U. Jin, MD, Ph.D., the paper's co-first author and a clinical fellow in the Division of Medical Oncology who studies Barrett's esophagus because it is a major risk factor for cancer of the esophagus. The other co-first author, Jeffrey W. Brown, MD, Ph.D., is an instructor in medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology.

In this study, the researchers analyzed tissue from 30 patients with Barrett's esophagus and found that cells in the tissue samples all had receptors for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which normal esophagus cells lack. They built and cultured mini organs from those and other esophagus tissue samples. Some of the sample organs were built with cells that came from healthy people while others came from patients with Barrett's esophagus. The scientists built the mini esophaguses, called organoids, in a dish to learn how those model organs interacted with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The virus was able to bind to and infect mini organs built from tissue from people with Barrett's esophagus. Moreover, the more the cells in a specific patient's mini esophagus culture resembled intestine, the more the virus bound to and infected that culture.

"The worry would be that, particularly for Barrett's patients, there even may be a susceptibility to infection from foods containing viral particles," Mills said. "This study provides data to indicate that we need to take a closer look to investigate whether a substantial portion of the population may be susceptible to infection through what they swallow."

Explore further

Q&A: Determining foods to avoid when managing Barrett's esophagus

More information: Ramon U. Jin et al. Tropism of SARS-CoV-2 for Barrett's Esophagus may Increase Susceptibility to Developing COVID-19, Gastroenterology (2021). DOI: 10.1053/j.gastro.2021.01.024

Journal information: Gastroenterology 

[url]https://www.wormsandgermsblog.com/2021/02/articles/animals/cats/routine-testing-of-pets-exposed-to-owners-with-covid-19-south-korea/[/url] or https://www.wormsandgermsblog.com/2021/02/articles/animals/cats/routine-testing-of-pets-exposed-to-owners-with-covid-19-south-korea/ ; 

There’s an interesting report that pets of people with COVID-19 in Seoul, Korea (and soon other areas) will be tested for SARS-CoV-2 for free, if the pets are showing signs of compatible illness. This comes on the heels of the (unsurprising) identification of an infected kitten in the city at the end of January, which was the first (confirmed) infection in an animal in Korea. It’s an interesting response, and it’s nice to see.

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We don’t know if a response like this is necessary, but the fact that we don’t know probably means that it is.  Once again, an Asian country is demonstrating a more proactive response to a disease risk, rather than the “show me there’s a problem, then I’ll think about acting” response we’ve seen elsewhere.

DJ We do know pets-cats more likely then dogs-can get infected via humans. We do know Covid19 in animals-bats (that is where it most likely started) and minks is a very major problem. Covid19 in non-human hosts is a major risk for new variants. Why are "we" in the west not stopping that ? 

[url]https://news.mongabay.com/2020/10/research-links-industrial-pig-farming-and-virus-outbreaks/[/url] or https://news.mongabay.com/2020/10/research-links-industrial-pig-farming-and-virus-outbreaks/ ; 

The widespread theory that the SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, spread from a wet market in Wuhan, China, was challenged in research published in May. According to that study, the virus had been circulating in China before that, and the first animal-to-human transmission occurred before the outbreak linked to the Huanan market. Experts from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) also said the initial transmission of SARS-CoV-2 did not occur at the Huanan market, which served instead as the site where it was further disseminated. Scientists have also discounted the theory that the virus was genetically engineered in a lab and then somehow got out.

What many experts do believe, though, is that there was likely an intermediary host between bats, where the virus is suspected to originate from, and humans. China is the world’s largest pork producer, and Hubei province, where Wuhan is located, is one of China’s five largest pork producers.

“There are many similarities between pigs and us, from the respiratory system to the gastrointestinal system,” Bombardi says. Pigs can catch the avian flu virus and human influenza virus at the same time, and then engender novel combinations that can be transmitted again and infect human beings.

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• Researchers have found a surprising correlation in Brazil, the U.S. and Germany: areas with more pigs also have higher COVID-19 infection rates.

DJ Statistics can give indications for further research. Part of "pig-Covid"story has to do with working conditions. The general idea is pigs do not get ill from Covid19 infection. But there may have been limited research on if pigs can catch and transmit Covid19 infections a-symptomaticly...

[url]https://www.wormsandgermsblog.com/2020/10/articles/animals/other-animals/covid-in-animals-review-part-3-pigs/[/url] or https://www.wormsandgermsblog.com/2020/10/articles/animals/other-animals/covid-in-animals-review-part-3-pigs/ ; However, leave it to Canadians to be disruptive – an experimental study conducted by the CFIA found slightly different results in pigs.  It didn’t raise major concerns, but it suggested things are not not quite as clearcut. In that study, 16 pigs were exposed to a higher dose of the virus than in previous studies.  Once again, nothing remarkable happened. Some developed mild discharge from the eyes for a few days. One had a slight cough and was mildly depressed for a few days. However, low levels of virus were detected from respiratory samples by PCR from two of the sixteen pigs, although live virus could not be isolated. The virus was also isolated from a lymph node of one pig, and antibodies were detected in the blood of two pigs, supporting some level of true infection. Two pigs were added to the exposed pigs 10 days after inoculation, and they did not get infected. Overall, 5 of the 16 pigs (~30%) had some evidence of mild infection. So, this study showed some degree of susceptibility, but with infrequent mild disease and no evidence that pigs are infected to the degree that they would be able to pass on the virus to other animals or people.

DJ-In China African Swine Fever did weaken pigs [url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_swine_fever_virus#2018-2019_Asia_swine_fever_outbreak[/url] or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_swine_fever_virus#2018-2019_Asia_swine_fever_outbreak . Could it be sick pigs did catch Covid19 from bats (in China/Asia) and infected 'other species" (maybe not direct humans-but maybe cats, dogs). If a human has limited immunity due to illness he/she may have gotten the infection via a cat/dog and the virus did get strong enough to start a pandemic ? (Could have been in 2018/19-linked with the African Swine Fever outbreak). 

It very likely started on a very small scale-(S-shape model) becoming a problem after months. By that time the pigs in Asia may have shown no signs of Covid19 infection any longer...

[url]https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum/welcome-to-the-scientific-library/genetics-aa/908291-j-microbiol-a-comprehensive-review-of-sars-cov-2-genetic-mutations-and-lessons-from-animal-coronavirus-recombination-in-one-health-perspective[/url] or https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum/welcome-to-the-scientific-library/genetics-aa/908291-j-microbiol-a-comprehensive-review-of-sars-cov-2-genetic-mutations-and-lessons-from-animal-coronavirus-recombination-in-one-health-perspective ; 

• PMID: 33624270
• DOI: 10.1007/s12275-021-0660-4

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 was originated from zoonotic coronaviruses and confirmed as a novel beta-coronavirus, which causes serious respiratory illness such as pneumonia and lung failure, COVID-19. In this review, we describe the genetic characteristics of SARS-CoV-2, including types of mutation, and molecular epidemiology, highlighting its key difference from animal coronaviruses. We further summarized the current knowledge on clinical, genetic, and pathological features of several animal coronaviruses and compared them with SARS-CoV-2, as well as recent evidences of interspecies transmission and recombination of animal coronaviruses to provide a better understanding of SARS-CoV-2 infection in One Health perspectives. We also discuss the potential wildlife hosts and zoonotic origin of this emerging virus in detail, that may help mitigate the spread and damages caused by the disease.

Keywords: animal coronavirus; coronavirus disease 2019; genetic mutations; pandemic.

DJ-The DOI is a link to  a study on how coronavirusses developed in mammals. Of course we can learn from that. The other problem is still now many mammals get infected...from minks to pigs-sometimes asymptomatic but creating new variants (and yes they do spread !)