Detection and Discovery of Coronaviruses in Wild Bird Populations

Abstract

Wild birds are natural hosts of multiple microbial agents, including a wide diversity of coronaviruses. Here we describe a pan-Coronavirus detection RT-PCR method to identify those viruses regardless of the coronavirus genus or nature of the specimen. We also describe a protocol using high-throughput sequencing technologies to obtain their entire genome, which overcomes the inherent difficulties of wild bird coronavirus sequencing, that is, their genetic diversity and the lack of virus isolation methods.