Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2: Fruit bats and ferrets are susceptible, pigs and chickens are not : First results of studies conducted at the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut : FLI Press release 03/2020

Insel Riems, 2 April 2020. With SARS-CoV-2, a novel zoonotic coronavirus originally believed to have originated from bats occurred in humans in China about three months ago, subsequently leading to a pandemic. Whether SARS-CoV-2 can also infect other animal species is being investigated by various research institutes worldwide. The Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI) started infection studies in pigs, chickens, fruit bats, and ferrets several weeks ago. First results show that fruit bats and ferrets are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection, whereas pigs and chickens are not. The susceptibility of ferrets in particular is an important finding, as they could be used as model animals for human infection to test vaccines or drugs.