A pan-coronavirus RT-PCR assay for rapid viral screening of animal, human, and environmental specimens
Xinye Wang,
Leshan Xiu,
Raquel A. Binder,
Teck-Hock Toh,
Jeffrey Soon-Yit Lee,
Jakie Ting,
Son T. Than,
Wenhao Qi,
Kristen K. Coleman,
David Perera,
Maijuan Ma,
Gregory C. Gray
Affiliations
Xinye Wang
Global Health Research Center, Duke Kunshan University, Kunshan, China; School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Leshan Xiu
Division of Infectious Diseases, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA; Duke Global Health Institute, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA; NHC Key Laboratory of Systems Biology of Pathogens, Institute of Pathogen Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China
Raquel A. Binder
Division of Infectious Diseases, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA; Duke Global Health Institute, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
Teck-Hock Toh
Faculty of Medicine, SEGi University, Kota Damansara, Selangor, Malaysia; Clinical Research Center, Sibu Hospital, Ministry of Health Malaysia, Sibu, Sarawak, Malaysia
Jeffrey Soon-Yit Lee
Faculty of Medicine, SEGi University, Kota Damansara, Selangor, Malaysia; Clinical Research Center, Sibu Hospital, Ministry of Health Malaysia, Sibu, Sarawak, Malaysia
Jakie Ting
Faculty of Medicine, SEGi University, Kota Damansara, Selangor, Malaysia
Son T. Than
Program in Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
Wenhao Qi
Global Health Research Center, Duke Kunshan University, Kunshan, China
Kristen K. Coleman
Program in Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
David Perera
Institute of Health and Community Medicine, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia
Maijuan Ma
State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing 100,071, China
Gregory C. Gray
Global Health Research Center, Duke Kunshan University, Kunshan, China; Division of Infectious Diseases, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA; Duke Global Health Institute, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA; Program in Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore; Corresponding author at: Duke University School of Medicine, DUMC Box 102,359, Durham, NC 27710.
We examined a collection of 386 animal, 451 human, and 109 archived bioaerosol samples with a new pan-species coronavirus molecular assay. Thirty-eight (4.02%) of 946 specimens yielded evidence of human or animal coronaviruses. Our findings demonstrate the utility of employing the pan-CoV RT-PCR assay in detecting varied coronavirus among human, animal, and environmental specimens. This RT-PCR assay might be employed as a screening diagnostic for early detection of coronaviruses incursions or prepandemic coronavirus emergence in animal or human populations.
