Reply to “Concerns About Misinterpretation of Recent Scientific Data Implicating Dromedary Camels in Epidemiology of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS)”

Alagaili, Abdulaziz N.; Briese, Thomas; Karesh, William B.; Daszak, Peter; Lipkin, W. Ian

W e thank Samara and Abdoun for this opportunity to extend the discussion of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection in dromedary camels (DCs) (1). Several research groups working with samples from DCs collected in the Middle East have independently reported findings consistent with ours (2, 3), including the detection of specific antibodies to MERS-CoV (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) , MERS-CoV nucleic acid (8, (11) (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) , and the isolation of infectious virus (13) (14) (15) . One of these reports from Azhar and colleagues provides serological evidence of DC-tohuman virus transmission (14) . Furthermore, recent publications, abstracts from recent meetings, and news articles in prominent scientific journals reporting results of these meetings indicate the presence of MERS-CoV in DC products, including milk and meat, as well as a higher prevalence of antibodies to MERS-CoV in humans who come into contact with DCs or DC products (17) (18) (19) (20) (21) .