Stability of SARS-CoV-2 in Biological Fluids of Animals

Abstract

Since its first emergence in 2019, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has continued to evolve genetically, jump species barriers, and expand its host range. There is growing evidence of interspecies transmission including infection of domestic animals and widespread circulation in wildlife. However, knowledge of SARS-CoV-2 stability in animal biological fluids and their role in transmission is still limited as previous studies focused on human biological fluids. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the SARS-CoV-2 stability in biological fluids from three animal species, cats, sheep and white-tailed deer (WTD). Saliva, feces, 10% fecal suspensions, and urine of cats, sheep, and WTD were mixed with a known concentration of virus and incubated under indoor and three different climatic conditions. Our results show that the virus was stable for up to 1 day in the saliva of cats, sheep, and WTD regardless of the environmental conditions. The virus remained infectious for up to 6 days in feces and 15 days in fecal suspension of WTD, whereas the virus was rather unstable in cat and sheep feces and fecal suspensions. We found the longest survival of SARS-CoV-2 in the urine of cats, sheep, and WTD. Furthermore, side-by-side comparison with different SARS-CoV-2 strains showed that the Alpha, Delta, and Omicron variants of concern were less stable than the ancestral Wuhan-like strain in WTD fecal suspension. The results of our study provide valuable information for assessing the potential role of various animal biological fluids in SARS-CoV-2 transmission.