%0 Journal Article %A Zhang, Wei %A Zheng, Xiao-Shuang %A Agwanda, Bernard %A Ommeh, Sheila %A Zhao, Kai %A Lichoti, Jacqueline %A Wang, Ning %A Chen, Jing %A Li, Bei %A Yang, Xing-Lou %A Mani, Shailendra %A Ngeiywa, Kisa-Juma %A Zhu, Yan %A Hu, Ben %A Onyuok, Samson Omondi %A Yan, Bing %A Anderson, Danielle E. %A Wang, Lin-Fa %A Zhou, Peng %A Shi, Zheng-Li %D 2019 %T Serological evidence of MERS-CoV and HKU8-related CoV co-infection in Kenyan camels %U https://tandf.figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Serological_evidence_of_MERS-CoV_and_HKU8-related_CoV_co-infection_in_Kenyan_camels/10033007 %R 10.6084/m9.figshare.10033007.v1 %2 https://tandf.figshare.com/ndownloader/files/18089612 %K MERS %K coronavirus %K bat %K camel %K HKU8 %X

Dromedary camels are important reservoir hosts of various coronaviruses, including Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) that cause human infections. CoV genomes regularly undergo recombination during infection as observed in bat SARS-related CoVs. Here we report for the first time that only a small proportion of MERS-CoV receptor-binding domain positive (RBD) of spike protein positive camel sera in Kenya were also seropositive to MERS-CoV nucleocapsid (NP). In contrast, many of them contain antibodies against bat HKU8-related (HKU8r)-CoVs. Among 584 camel samples that were positive against MERS-CoV RBD, we found only 0.48 (8.22%) samples were also positive for NP. Furthermore, we found bat HKU8r-CoV NP antibody in 73 (12.5%) of the MERS-CoV RBD positive and NP negative samples, yet found only 3 (0.43%) of the HKU8r-CoV S1 antibody in the same samples. These findings may indicate co-infection with MERS-CoV and a HKU8r-CoV in camels. It may also raise the possibility of the circulation of a recombinant coronavirus virus with the spike of MERS-CoV and the NP of a HKU8r-CoV in Kenya. We failed to find molecular evidence of an HKU8r-CoV or a putative recombinant virus. Our findings should alert other investigators to look for molecular evidence of HKU8r-CoV or recombinants.

%I Taylor & Francis