Coronaviruses of wild animals in Russia

Abstract

The review considers wild animal coronaviruses that live in Russia and present certain epidemic and epizootic risks. It is believed that coronaviruses entered the human population from representatives of the wild fauna and bats (the main hosts are natural reservoirs), as well as snakes, pangolins, civets, camels (intermediate hosts) are proposed as candidates. Meanwhile, this list is much wider and the intermediate link may be feline (tigers, leopards, Pallas’s cats, caracals, European wildcat and eurasian lynxs), mustelidae (american minks, ferrets and siberian weasel), rodents (mice and rats), marine mammals (harbour seal, bottlenose dolphin and beluga whale), as well as insectivores, namely hedgehogs (European, Amur and other species). The majority (60-75 %) of viral pathogens enter the human population from animals, of which at least 70% are wild. The influence of the exploitation of wild animals by mankind on the appearance of pandemics has been observed, which in itself provokes the emergence of new viruses in nature. Flora and fauna, adapting to the growing anthropogenic impact, are geographically redistributed.