A pan-coronavirus RT-PCR assay for rapid viral screening of animal, human, and environmental specimens

Abstract

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.

Keywords

• Coronaviruses
• Zoonotic diseases
• Infectious diseases
• RT-PCR
• One health