Camels may be responsible for the spreading of the deadly MERS coronavirus which has infected 94 people and killed almost half of them. A new study published on Friday suggests that the SARS-like virus which was until now associated with bats may be in fact coming from camels.
Study researchers from the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in Bilthoven, the Netherlands, tested blood samples from 50 Omani and 105 Spanish camels. They found that all camels from Oman had developed antibodies against the MERS virus while only 15 of the Spanish animals had them. The antibodies present in the blood means that the camels have been infected with the deadly infection at some point in the past and have recovered. The results of the research give a possible answer to the question of how people get infected. According to scientists, the MERS virus has been found in cells taken from bats and until now, bats were believed a source for the illness. The problem was that bats are night animals having little or no contact with humans. Camels on the other hand, are very popular in the Middle East where most of the cases of infection were reported.
However, the actual MERS virus wasn’t found in the Omani camels. The researchers say that for now they can’t prove that these animals are the source of the infection in Saudi Arabia. No antibodies were found in cows, goats, or sheep. The researchers also point out that camels are common in Oman, Saudi Arabia and the entire region – they are kept for races, as well as their milk and meat, so there are many kinds of camel-human contact. And the biggest problem is that it is still unknown how exactly the virus jumps from animals to people. Other tests are currently carried out on animals in the Middle East, as well as on dates – some experts believe they can be infected by bat excrements before consumed by people.
