Broad Host Range of SARS-CoV-2 Predicted by Comparative and Structural Analysis of ACE2 in Vertebrates

Joana Damas; Graham M. Hughes; Kathleen C. Keough; Corrie A. Painter; Nicole S. Persky; Marco Corbo; Michael Hiller; Klaus-Peter Koepfli; Andreas R. Pfenning; Huabin Zhao; Diane P. Genereux; Ross Swofford; Katherine S. Pollard; Oliver A. Ryder; Martin T. Nweeia; Kerstin Lindblad-Toh; Emma C. Teeling; Elinor K. Karlsson; Harris A. Lewin

Other artiodactyls . A relatively large fraction (21/30) of artiodactyl mammals were classified with medium score for ACE2 binding to SARS-CoV-2 S. These include many species that are commonly found in Hubei Province and around the world, such as domesticated cattle, sheep and goats, as well as many species commonly found in zoos and wildlife parks (e.g., Masai giraffe, okapi, hippopotamus, water buffalo, scimitar horned oryx, and Dama gazelle). Although cattle MDBK cells were shown in one study to be resistant to SARS-CoV-2 in vitro (50) , we propose immediate surveillance of common artiodactyl species for SARS-CoV-2 and studies of cellular infectivity, given our predictions. If ruminant artiodactyls can serve as a reservoir for SARS-CoV-2, it would have significant epidemiological implications as well as implications for food production and wildlife management (see below). It is noteworthy that camels and pigs, known for their ability to be infected by coronaviruses (35) , both score low in our analysis. These 11 . CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license author/funder. It is made available under a The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the . https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.16.045302 doi: bioRxiv preprint data are consistent with results (discussed above) indicating that pigs cannot be infected with SARS-CoV-2 both in vivo (47) and