Equine coronavirus - an emerging threat in Swedish horses?

Coronaviruses cause severe disease in both humans and animals, but in spite of being so important animal pathogens, there are still many questions remaining to be answered. Coronaviruses have a tendency to evolve and recombine, and thus create new viruses that can jump between species. Equine coronavirus (ECoV) cause fever, inappetence, and sometimes fatal gastrointestinal disease in horses. The virus is fairly newly discovered, with the first cases in Sweden described in 2017, and every year more and larger outbreaks are seen, indicating disease emergence in Sweden.

This project will be the first to study and map ECoV in Sweden, and we will analyze both fecal and nasal swabs of suspected cases with PCR, and sequence positive samples for phylogenetic analyses. We will conduct a seroprevalence study stratified for different parts of the country, as well as retrospectively analyze biobanked samples to find evidence of when the first introduction occurred in Sweden. We will also in-depth study stables that experienced outbreaks, to describe the clinical picture, seroconverting rates, duration of antibodies, and how many horses that are infected.

This virus is today causing an increasing burden on the horse and agricultural sector of Sweden and this project will be of importance for future control measures.