Detection of the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus in dromedary camel’s seminal plasma in Saudi Arabia 2015–2017

Abstract

The Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is an emergent respiratory virus. Dromedary camels are currently the only known reservoir of MERS-CoV and are capable of transmitting the virus within a herd. The role of semen in the transmission of MERS-CoV has never been investigated as yet, to the best of our knowledge. Our goal was to test semen collected from dromedary camels for MERS-CoV. A total of 67 seminal plasma samples from infertile and 13 from fertile dromedary camels were collected. The RNA was extracted from the samples and tested using commercial real-time PCR. Nine out of sixty-seven infertile animals (13.4%) were positive. The obtained PCR products were sequenced using the conserved MERS-CoV-N gene primers. MERS-CoV-RNA detected in seminal plasma was closely related to the lineage B. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report about the detection of MERS-CoV-RNA in camel's seminal plasma. Regular testing of semen of common male camels' used for insemination should be considered to avoid a possible spread of the virus through semen.