Severe acute respiratory disease in American mink (Neovison vison) experimentally infected with SARS-CoV-2

Adney, D. R.; Lovaglio, J.; Schulz, J. E.; Yinda, C. K.; Avanzato, V. A.; Haddock, E.; Port, J. R.; Holbrook, M.; Hanley, P. W.; Saturday, G.; Scott, D.; Spengler, J. R.; Tansey, C.; Cossaboom, C.; Wendling, N.; Martens, C.; Easley, J.; Yap, S. W.; Seifert, S. N.; Munster, V. J.

doi:10.1101/2022.01.20.477164

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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2022.01.20.477164

Severe acute respiratory disease in American mink (Neovison vison) experimentally infected with SARS-CoV-2

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Abstract

An animal model that fully recapitulates severe COVID-19 presentation in humans has been a top priority since the discovery of SARS-CoV-2 in 2019. Although multiple animal models are available for mild to moderate clinical disease, a non-transgenic model that develops severe acute respiratory disease has not been described. Mink experimentally infected with SARS-CoV-2 developed severe acute respiratory disease, as evident by clinical respiratory disease, radiological, and histological changes. Virus was detected in nasal, oral, rectal, and fur swabs. Deep sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 from oral swabs and lung tissue samples showed repeated enrichment for a mutation in the gene encoding for nonstructural protein 6 in open reading frame 1a/1ab. Together, these data indicate that American mink develop clinical features characteristic of severe COVID19 and as such, are uniquely suited to test viral countermeasures. One Sentence SummarySARS-CoV-2 infected mink develop severe respiratory disease that recapitulates some components of severe acute respiratory disease, including ARDS.

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Adney, D. R., Lovaglio, J., Schulz, J. E., Yinda, C. K., Avanzato, V. A., Haddock, E., Port, J. R., Holbrook, M., Hanley, P. W., Saturday, G., Scott, D., Spengler, J. R., Tansey, C., Cossaboom, C., Wendling, N., Martens, C., Easley, J., Yap, S. W., Seifert, S. N., Munster, V. J.. 2022-01-24. Severe acute respiratory disease in American mink (Neovison vison) experimentally infected with SARS-CoV-2. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.20.477164

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