Table 2.

Summary of clinical signs, pathological findings and target cells in tissues of natural and potential reservoir hosts for MERS-CoV infection as experimental animal models.

	Species	Clinical signs	Gross findings	Histopathological lesions	Target cells in tissues	References
Camelids	Dromedary camels (Camelus dromedarius)	Mild respiratory disease, nasal discharge	Not present	Multifocal moderate rhinitis, tracheitis and bronchitis with epithelial necrosis. Hyperplasia of lymph nodes and tonsil	Respiratory epithelial cells in the URT	[47], [53]
	Alpacas (Vicugna pacos)	Not observable	Not present	Squamous metaplasia of the epithelium of the turbinate. Hypertrophy and hyperplasia of lymph nodes	Respiratory epithelial cells in the URT	[48], [49]
	Llamas (Lama glama)	Mild mucus secretion in one nostril	Not present	Mild to severe rhinitis	Respiratory epithelial cells in the URT	[50]
Non-camelid domestic species	Domestic pig (Sus scrofa domesticus)	Mild excretion of mucus in the nose	Not present	Mild to severe rhinitis	Respiratory epithelial cells in the URT	[50]
	Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus)	Not observable	Not present	Focal mild to moderate rhinitis with necrosis	Respiratory epithelial cells in the URT	[54]
NHP	Rhesus macaquesa(Macaca mulatta)	Fever, mild to moderate respiratory disease	Lung congestion and nodules in lung No extra pulmonary lesions	Multifocal mild-to-moderate interstitial pneumonia	Type I and II pneumocytes and alveolar macrophages	[21], [22], [23]
	Common marmoseta(Callithrix jacchus)	Mild to severe respiratory disease	Congestion of bronchioles	Diffuse interstitial infiltration in lower lung lobes, bronchointerstitial pneumonia	Type I pneumocytes and alveolar macrophages	[24]

Abbreviations: NHP, non-human primates; URT, upper respiratory tract.

^aAlso animal models of disease (translation to human).