A new strain of coronavirus that has recently devastated the swine industry ‘may have the potential to spread to humans’, a new study has warned.
The strain, known as acute diarrhoea syndrome coronavirus (SADS-CoV), first emerged in 2016, and has wreaked havoc on the pork industry.
As the name suggests, the virus causes severe diarrhoea and vomiting, and is especially deadly to young piglets. Now researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill say that the virus has the potential to replicate in humans.
In the study, the researchers tested several types of human cell by infecting them with a synthetic form of SADS-CoV. The tests showed that a wide range of human cells were susceptible to infection, including liver and gut