TY - JOUR AU - Totura, Allison AU - Livingston, Virginia AU - Frick, Ondraya AU - Dyer, David AU - Nichols, Donald AU - Nalca, Aysegul T1 - Small Particle Aerosol Exposure of African Green Monkeys to MERS-CoV as a Model for Highly Pathogenic Coronavirus Infection T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2020 VL - 26 IS - 12 SP - 2835 SN - 1080-6059 AB - Emerging coronaviruses are a global public health threat because of the potential for person-to-person transmission and high mortality rates. Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) emerged in 2012, causing lethal respiratory disease in ยป35% of cases. Primate models of coronavirus disease are needed to support development of therapeutics, but few models exist that recapitulate severe disease. For initial development of a MERS-CoV primate model, 12 African green monkeys were exposed to 103, 104, or 105 PFU target doses of aerosolized MERS-CoV. We observed a dose-dependent increase of respiratory disease signs, although all 12 monkeys survived for the 28-day duration of the study. This study describes dose-dependent effects of MERS-CoV infection of primates and uses a route of infection with potential relevance to MERS-CoV transmission. Aerosol exposure of African green monkeys might provide a platform approach for the development of primate models of novel coronavirus diseases. KW - COVID-19 KW - coronavirus disease KW - SARS-CoV-2 KW - severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 KW - viruses KW - respiratory infections KW - zoonoses KW - MERS KW - MERS-CoV KW - Middle East respiratory syndrome KW - SARS-CoV KW - primate KW - model KW - medical countermeasures DO - 10.3201/eid2612.201664 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/12/20-1664_article ER - End of Reference