Table 1.
Field studies of evidence of MERS-CoV infection in dromedary camels. ppNT: pseudoparticle neutralization; MN: microneutralization; CI: confidence interval; VNT: virus neutralizing antibodies test.
| Country | Number of camels | Evidence of MERS-CoV infection |
|---|---|---|
| Australia | 25 | No evidence for MERS-CoV infection in dromedary camels (Hemida et al., 2014) |
| Bangladesh | 55 | 17 (31%) samples were seropositive (Ariful et al., 2018) |
| Burkina Faso | 525 | Seropositivity rates ranged from 73.2% (95% CI): 48.6–88.8) to 84.6% (95% CI: 77.2–89.9) and virus detection from 0% (95% CI: 0–0) to 12.2% (95%CI: 7–20.4) (Miguel et al., 2017) |
| Egypt | 2825 | Of 2825 nasal swabs, RNA detection rate was 15% by RT-PCR. Of 2541 sera samples, the overall seroprevalence was 71%. (Ali et al., 2017) |
| 1078 | Of 1031 serological tests, 871 (84.5%) had MERS-CoV neutralizing antibodies. Of 1078 nasal samples, 41 (3.8%) were positive for MERS-CoV using MERS-CoV PCR (Ali et al., 2015) | |
| 110 | 4 (3.6%) nasal swab specimens tested positive for presence of MERS-CoV RNA. Antibodies against MERS-CoV were detected in 48 (92.3%) of 52 serum samples (ref 48) (Chu et al., 2014) | |
| 110 | 103 (93.6%) sera collected neutralized MERS-CoV using ppNT (Perera et al., 2013b) | |
| 43 | 34 (79.1%) dromedary camels were positive for MERS-CoV antibodies using MN (Muller MA et al., 2014) | |
| Ethiopia | 632 | Seropositivity rates ranged from 85.1% (95% CI: 71.8–92.7) to 99.4% (95% CI: 95.4–99.9) and the viral RNA detection rates from 0% (95% CI: 0–0) to 15.7% (95% CI: 8.2–28.0)95 |
| 188 | Seropositivity was 93% in adult dromedary camels and 97% for juvenile dromedary camels (Chantal et al., 2014) | |
| Iran | 186 | 8 (4.3%) samples positive using RT-PCR (OIE, 2014b) |
| Israel | 411 | 254 (61.8%) were positive for MERS-CoV antibodies using VNT; All nasal samples were negative for the presence of MERS-CoV RNA (David et al., 2018) |
| 71 | 51 (71.8%) sera samples had MERS-CoV neutralizing antibodies (Harcourt et al., 2018) | |
| Jordan | 11 | Neutralizing antibodies to MERS-CoV were found in all sera from dromedary camels (Reusken et al., 2013c) |
| 45 | 42 nasal swabs tested positive for the presence of MERS-CoV nucleic acid (van Doremalen et al., 2017) | |
| Kazakhstan | 455 | No evidence for MERS-CoV infection in dromedary camels (Miguel et al., 2016) |
| Kenya | 774 | 228 (29.5%) were positive using rELISA test (Corman et al., 2014) |
| 335 | Seroprevalence of MERS-CoV antibodies in the sampled population was 46.9% (95% CI 41.4–52.5) (Deem et al., 2015) | |
| Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Azhar et al., 2014; Hemida et al., 2013, 2014, 2017; Alagaili et al., 2014; Briese et al., 2014; Maged et al., 2014, 2015; Kasem et al., 2017; Ziad et al., 2014) | 203 | 150 (74%) sampled were found to have antibodies to MERS-CoV by ELISA (Alagaili et al., 2014) |
| 1309 | 158 (12.1%) nasal swabs were positive for MERS-CoV (Sabir et al., 2016) | |
| 698 | The overall prevalence of MERS infection in camels in animal markets and slaughterhouses by rtRT-PCR was 56.4% | |
| 99 | High levels of seropositivity in two herds demonstrated – in on herd, all samples had MERS-CoV antibodies (Hemida et al., 2017) | |
| 310 | 280 (90.3%) samples were positive using ppNT (Hemida et al., 2013) | |
| 171 | 144 (84.2%) sera samples had specific antibodies against MERS-CoV (Harrath and Abu Duhier, 2018) | |
| 9 | 2 (22.2%) nasal samples were positive using RT-PCR (Ziad et al., 2014) | |
| 9 | 1 (11.1%) nasal samples were negative for MERS-CoV RNA. All serum samples had high titers of MER-CoV antibodies (Azhar et al., 2014) | |
| 131 archived sera | 118 (90.1%) had detectable ppNT antibody titres to MERS-CoV (Hemida et al., 2014) | |
| Kuwait | 63 | 5 (7.9%) nasal samples were positive using RT-PCR (WAHIS Interface, 2014) |
| Mali | 570 | 502 (88.1%) were positive for antibodies against MERS-CoV (Falzarano et al., 2017) |
| Morocco | 343 | Seropositivity rates ranged from 48.3% (95% CI: 18.3–79.5) to 100% (95% CI:100-100) and viral RNA detection rates from 0% (95% CI: 0–0) to 7.6% (95% CI: 1.9–26.1)95 |
| Nigeria | 358 | Seropositivity was 94% in adult dromedary camels and 93% for juvenile dromedary camels (Chantal et al., 2014; Chu et al., 2015) |
| 132 | 14 (11%) nasal swabs were positive using RT-qPCR (Chantal et al., 2014; Chu et al., 2015) | |
| 2529 | MERS-CoV RNA was detected in 4/38 (10.5%) of camels aged < 2 years, in 31/1400 (2.2%) aged 2–4 years and in 20/1091 (1.8%) aged > 4 years (So et al., 2018) | |
| Oman | 76 | 5 (6.6%) proved positive in all applied RT-qPCR and RT-PCR assays. (Nowotny and Kolodziejek, 2014) |
| 50 | 50 (100%) had protein-specific antibodies against MERS-CoV (Reusken et al., 2013d) | |
| Pakistan | 565 | 315 (55.8%) samples exceeded the ELISA signal cutoff. Of these, 223 (39.5%) were confirmed using MN (Saqib et al., 2017) |
| Qatar | 14 | 3 (21.4%) nasal samples were positive using RT-PCR (Haagmans et al., 2014) |
| 105 | 62 (59.0%) camels showed evidence for virus shedding in at least one type of swab at the time of slaughter (Farag et al., 2015) Antibodies to MERS-CoV S1 were found in 100 of 103 (97.1%) dromedary camels tested by micro-array technology (Farag et al., 2015) |
|
| 53 | 1 (1.9%) nasal swab had full viral genome isolated (Raj et al., 2014) | |
| 33 | 7 (21.1%) showed evidence for active virus shedding and 5 (15.2%) had viral RNA in camel milk (Reusken et al., 2014) | |
| 10 | 9 (90%) sera samples had MERS-CoV–specific antibodies. All nasal swab specimens were negative by PCR (Chantal et al., 2016) | |
| Spain (Canary Islands) | 105 | 15 (14%) had protein-specific antibodies against MERS-CoV (Reusken et al., 2013d) |
| Somalia | 86 | 25 (87.5%) dromedary camels were positive for MERS-CoV antibodies using MN (Muller MA et al., 2014) |
| Sudan | 60 | 49 (81.7%) dromedary camels were positive for MERS-CoV antibodies using MN (Muller MA et al., 2014) |
| Tunisia | 204 | Seropositivity was 30% for animals ≤2 years of age and 54% for adult dromedary camels (Chantal et al., 2014) |
| UAE | 1113 | 42 (3.7%) nasal swabs yielded positive results (Muhairi et al., 2016) |
| 843 | 786 (93.2%) sera samples were positive for antibodies against MERS-CoV (Sung Sup et al., 2015) | |
| 11 | 9 (81.8%) sera samples were positive for antibodies supported by similar results in a MERS-CoV recombinant partial spike protein antibody ELISA (Alexandersen et al., 2014) | |
| 651 | 632 (97.1%) had antibodies against MERS-CoV (Meyer et al., 2014) | |
| 376 | 108 (28.7%) nasopharyngeal samples positive for MERS-CoV (Li et al., 2017) | |
| 254 | 234 (92.1%) sera samples were positive for MERS-CoV IgG (Sung Sup et al., 2015) | |
| 6 | 6 (100%) nasopharyngeal swabs tested positive for MERS-CoV (Paden et al., 2018) |