ETIDIOH - NEW

Abstract Despite accumulating evidence that bat-derived coronaviruses often require intermediate hosts to facilitate transmission to humans1, the potential role of fur animals in zoonotic coronavirus spillovers has largely been overlooked2. Here we report the isolation and characterization of a novel mink respiratory coronavirus (MRCoV) from farmed minks with pneumonia . Notably, MRCoV uses angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) as a receptor and can infect mink, bat, monkey, and human cells . Cryo-electron microscopy analysis revealed that the MRCoV receptor-binding domain (RBD) binds to the same interface on ACE2 receptors as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) RBD , despite exhibiting notable structural differences. We identify the key determinants on ACE2 and MRCoV RBD that confer efficient binding. HKU5-33S, a bat coronavirus closely related to MRCoV , utilizes ACE2 of bat Pipistrellus abramus and requires only two amino acid substitutions to adapt to mink...

A mink farm in Lombardy Region. The minks were controlled in the framework of a national surveillance plan. Source: WOAH,  https://wahis.woah.org/#/in-review/6367?reportId=173318&fromPage=event-dashboard-url ____

Abstract Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 is known for its virulence and zoonotic potential, infecting birds and mammals , thus raising public health concerns. Since 2021 its spread among birds has led to cross-species transmission causing epizootics among mammals, eventually impacting fur animal farms in Finland in 2023. To analyze the infectivity of the Finnish H5N1 isolates in human cells , representatives of diverse H5N1 isolates were selected based on the genetic differences, host animal species, and the year of occurrence. The infection kinetics of the selected H5N1 isolates from wild pheasant and fox , and fur animals blue fox and white mink were examined in human monocyte-derived dendritic cells (moDCs) with H5N1 human isolate as a control. Although the isolate from pheasant (a wild bird) showed weakly reduced replication and viral protein expression in human cells compared to mammalian isolates, no discernible differences in virus replication in moDCs was observed...