Equine Coronavirus Cases are Increasing in Number

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154 – January/February, 2023

By Heather Smith Thomas

Coronavirus has been in the news for several years; the new human strain that came from China created worldwide disease and panic. There are several strains of coronavirus that can affect humans, causing respiratory disease. These include SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome) and some that have more recently been identified.

Other members of the coronavirus family cause disease in pigs—such as TGE (transmissible gastroenteritis) and PED (porcine epidemic diarrhea). FIP (feline infectious peritonitis) occurs in cats. There is also a coronavirus that infects horses. Though the human coronavirus is related to the viruses that infect cattle and horses, humans can’t get this disease from cattle or horses.

Coronaviruses are members of the Coronaviridae family, some of which cause intestinal and respiratory illness in chickens, dogs, cats, pigs, camels and cattle. Equine Coronavirus (ECoV) belongs to the subfamily called Betacoronavirus, a close relative to bovine coronavirus (BCV).

Dr. Geof Smith, College of Veterinary Medicine, North Carolina State University, explains that the coronaviruses are a very diverse family of RNA viruses. “These are a type of virus in which the genetic information is stored in the form of RNA (as opposed to DNA). The coronaviruses are all characterized by spikes that project outward from their surface. The strains that cause respiratory disease in people and the strains that infect cattle and horses are all different. The bovine coronavirus is in group 2a and all the human respiratory coronaviruses have been in subgroup 2b,” Smith says.

Click here to read the complete article
154 – January/February, 2023