Supplemental Figure S1.
SARS-CoV-2 inoculation produces weight loss and upper respiratory tract infection in Syrian golden hamsters. A: Summary of experimental design. In two replicate experiments (experiments 1 and 2), 8- to 10-week–old Syrian golden hamsters were inoculated intranasally (i.n.) with 104 plaque-forming units (PFUs) of SARS-CoV-2/human/USA/CA-CZB-59X002/2020 (GenBank, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/MT394528; accession number MT394528).14 This strain is representative of SARS-CoV-2 that was circulating in the US West Coast in early 2020 [now referred to as ancestral B.1.1.7 (614 G)], and had not previously been tested in hamsters. For experiment 1, 11 (6 males and 5 females) animals were used; and for experiment 2, 6 (3 males and 3 females) animals were used. Mock animals were inoculated with same volume of Dulbecco's phosphate-buffered saline (DPBS). For mock hamsters, experiment 1, 4 (2 males and 2 females) animals were used; and experiment 2, 2 (1 male and 1 female) animals were used. Each day, hamsters were weighed, and samples were collected from the oropharynx by swabbing. A subset of animals in each group was euthanized at 3, 6, or 7 days post inoculation (dpi). B–D: SARS-CoV-2–inoculated hamsters in both experiment 1 and 2 lost weight and contained detectable infectious virus in the upper respiratory tract. B: Hamster weight over time (dpi) shown as percentage of weight at day 0. C and D: Infectious virus recovered from daily oropharyngeal swabs (C) and lung at necropsy (D). Infectious virus was recovered from the upper respiratory tract until 3 dpi and was only detected in the lung of hamsters euthanized at 3 dpi.