Nature. Respiratory disease in rhesus macaques inoculated with SARS-CoV-2

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Nature. 2020 May 12. doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2324-7. [Epub ahead of print]
Respiratory disease in rhesus macaques inoculated with SARS-CoV-2.


Munster VJ¹, Feldmann F², Williamson BN¹, van Doremalen N¹, P?rez-P?rez L¹, Schulz J¹, Meade-White K¹, Okumura A¹, Callison J¹, Brumbaugh B³, Avanzato VA¹, Rosenke R², Hanley PW², Saturday G², Scott D², Fischer ER³, de Wit E⁴.

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Abstract

An outbreak of a novel coronavirus, named SARS-CoV-2, causing respiratory disease and a ~2% case fatality rate started in Wuhan, China in December 2019^1,2. Following unprecedented global spread³, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Although data on disease in humans are emerging at a steady pace, certain aspects of the pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 can only be studied in detail in animal models, where repeated sampling and tissue collection is possible. Here, we show that SARS-CoV-2 causes respiratory disease in infected rhesus macaques, with disease lasting 8-16 days. Pulmonary infiltrates, a hallmark of human disease, were visible in lung radiographs. High viral loads were detected in swabs from the nose and throat of all animals as well as in bronchoalveolar lavages; in one animal we observed prolonged rectal shedding. Taken together, the rhesus macaque recapitulates moderate disease observed in the majority of human cases. The establishment of the rhesus macaque as a model of COVID-19 will increase our understanding of the pathogenesis of this disease and will aid development and testing of medical countermeasures.



PMID:32396922DOI:10.1038/s41586-020-2324-7