Researchers suspect that camels may be a carrier of the mysterious virus that has infected at least 94 people in eight Middle Eastern Countries. It Kills about 50% of the people who catch the virus and spreads easily in hospitals.
The virus, first detected last year in Saudi Arabia, causes Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, which begins with flu like symptoms and can progress to severe pneumonia. Because the virus is a coronaviruses, often found in bats, researchers suspect that it originally came from bats. The bats might infect people through droppings or saliva, but they might also infect other animals that could then transmit the virus to humans.
Now, a scientific team from a dozen universities is reporting that dromedary camels (the kind with one hump) from Oman and the Canary Islands show signs of past infection with the MERS virus or one very much like it. Researchers tested blood samples from 50 female retired racing camels in Oman, and 105 used in the tourist industry in the Canary Islands. The blood tests did not find the virus itself, but did find antibodies to it in all the camels from Oman, and 14 percent of the ones from the Canary Islands. Other animals were also tested — sheep, goats, camels, llamas and alpacas — but none had MERS antibodies.
Writing in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, the researchers say their findings need to be verified by other studies, but meanwhile, detailed case histories should be taken of people who have had MERS to find out if they had been exposed to camels or their milk or meat.
Dr. W. Ian Lipkin, a virus expert at Columbia University who has been studying MERS, said, “I think it’s compelling evidence that dromedaries are infected with MERS or a related coronavirus.” The study does not prove that the animals have infected humans, he added, but he said It is plausible because people in the Middle East have a great deal of contact with camels as racing animals, pets and sources of food.
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