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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.
Farm animals in particular are in close contact with humans. Therefore, pigs and chickens have been tested for susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2. It was examined whether the animals become infected, the pathogen replicates and the animals show symptoms of disease. Under experimental conditions, neither pigs nor chickens were found to be susceptible to infection with SARS-CoV-2. According to the current state of knowledge, they are not affected by the virus and therefore do not pose a potential risk to human health. The complete evaluation of all test series will take some time, final results are expected at the beginning of May.
April 4, 2020/ Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut/ Germany.
https://www.fli.de
