Roadmap for the development of disease control strategies for coronaviruses

Host range

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Host range

Research Question

Understand the host range of coronaviruses to determine the factors that allow these viruses to infect different species, including humans

Understanding which species are susceptible to which coronaviruses
Cell culture work relies on materials not currently available for wildlife animals, including surveillance, laboratory capacity, sequences, and cells
Identifying molecular markers to identify spillover
Identifying factors that will address whether viral-cell binding leads to infection and onward transmission. There is a general lack of understanding of basic science and transmission
Ethical, economic, and practical concerns, particularly among animal studies
Exchange of material among laboratories (Nagoya)
Lacking a basic understanding of the species susceptibility and how it can vary across families or breeds even of animals
Differentiating between evidence of viral presence and determining the role of any specific host species as a reservoir for onward transmission
Matching CoV vaccines – are vaccines available seroconverting and protecting against the virus present
A lack of availability of species-matched vaccines – separate workshop

Collaborative surveillance programmes
Phylogenetic studies to trace the evolution of coronaviruses and their interactions with various host species
Identify and characterize viral receptors across different host species
Study cross-species transmission and identify molecular markers of spillover

Availability of funding, especially for studies to identify reservoirs of transmission and to identify host range
Addressing ethical and economic concerns for animal experiments that could otherwise be a solution
Training of pathologists
Availability of cell culture systems (and other reagents) for different animals (especially wildlife) – addressing surveillance and (BSL3) laboratory capacity