Prevalence of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus in Dromedary Camels, Tunisia

Abstract

Free-roaming camels, especially those crossing national borders, pose a high risk for spreading Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). To prevent outbreaks, active surveillance is necessary. We found that a high percentage of dromedaries in Tunisia are MERS-CoV seropositive (80.4%) or actively infected (19.8%), indicating extensive MERS-CoV circulation in Northern Africa.

Keywords

• MERS-CoV
• Middle East respiratory coronavirus
• seroprevalence
• phylogenetic analyses
• dromedary camels
• Camelus dromedarius