High proportion of MERS-CoV shedding dromedaries at slaughterhouse with a potential epidemiological link to human cases, Qatar 2014

Farag, Elmoubasher A. B. A.; Reusken, Chantal B. E. M.; Haagmans, Bart L.; Mohran, Khaled A.; Raj, V. Stalin; Pas, Suzan D.; Voermans, Jolanda; Smits, Saskia L.; Godeke, Gert-Jan; Al-Hajri, Mohd. M.; Alhajri, Farhoud H.; Al-Romaihi, Hamad E.; Ghobashy, Hazem; El-Maghraby, Mamdouh M.; El-Sayed, Ahmed M.; Al Thani, Mohamed H. J.; Al-Marri, Salih; Koopmans, Marion P. G.

To obtain further insight in the diversity of the viruses that circulated in dromedary camels at the slaughterhouse, MERS-CoV strains were sequenced according to a recently developed technique that enables the identification of divergent MERS-CoV types [sequences and technique in (8)]. In total, five different sequence types were identified with three different types found at both sampling moments (Table 2) . Camels either came from the large Al-Shahaniya international racing complex (ASH) or from different sources elsewhere in Qatar (indicated by the initial arrow for animals 6Á8 and 10Á12 in (Table 2) . Subsequently, they were either brought to a showing area (Al Mazad, AM), to the barns at the CM for a holding period, or immediately sent to the slaughterhouse (SH). Therefore, the sampling for animals 1Á5 and 9Á13 reflects MERS-CoV sequence diversity as a result of import from other regions in Qatar, whereas virus circulation at the CM more likely explains the virus diversity for animals 6Á8.