Coronaviruses are enveloped viruses with a positive sense non-segmented RNA genome that infect a variety of vertebrate hosts. They are currently classified in the family Coranaviridae, which is further divided into 2 subfamilies, 5 genera, 27 subgenera, and 39 species, reflecting the diversity of coronaviruses and their hosts. This group of viruses did not attract much scientific attention until 2003, because human coronavirus infections were typically associated only with mild respiratory disease referred to as “common cold”. This changed in 2003, when the first worldwide outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 1 (SARS-CoV-1) occurred, followed by the emergence of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)-CoV in 2012 and finally, the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in 2019. While the exact origin of SARS-CoV-2 remains obscure, most scientists believe that the virus crossed to humans from an unknown animal host, highlighting the importance of a One Health approach to human health.
Veterinarians have been long aware of the ability of coronaviruses to cause a variety of clinical outcomes, ranging from mild respiratory or gastrointestinal disease to fatal systemic disease. Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) has been the leading infectious cause of death among kittens and young cats. The diagnosis and prevention of FIP have been hindered by the inability to reliably distinguish the virulent variant from the relatively apathogenic enteric feline coronavirus, which commonly infects a large proportion of cats in any population. The existence of two coronavirus pathotypes associated with very different clinical outcomes has also been described for ferrets. Six different coronaviruses can infect pigs, some of which have been associated with considerable economic losses. Equine coronavirus infection has been linked to gastrointestinal disease ranging from mild diarrhea to fatal colitis.
The aim of this Article Collection is to provide a platform to disseminate research related to animal coronaviruses. The scope of the articles is broad and includes all aspects of coronavirus infections in a variety of hosts including wildlife, pets, and livestock. Topics related to virus characterization, pathogenesis, virus-host interactions, immune responses, development of vaccines, and prevention of coronavirus-associated diseases are all in-scope of this Article Collection.
All manuscripts submitted to this Article Collection will undergo desk assessment and peer-review as part of our standard editorial process. Guest Advisors will not be involved in peer-reviewing manuscripts unless they are an existing member of the Editorial Board.
Please review the journal scope and author submission instructions prior to submitting a manuscript.
The deadline for submitting manuscripts is 29 February 2024.
Please contact Millie Powell at [email protected] with any queries regarding this Article Collection.
Article Collection Guest Advisor(s)
Dr. Magda Dunowska, L.W., Ph.D, is an Associate Professor at Massey University, New Zealand. She leads the Infectious Disease group, which comprises academic staff specialising in veterinary microbiology, parasitology, and virology. Dr. Dunowska earned her Veterinary Medicine diploma from the Warsaw Agricultural University (Poland), and her Ph.D. in Virology from Massey University (New Zealand). She completed her postdoctoral work at Colorado State University (USA), where she also served as an Infection Control officer for the Veterinary Teaching Hospital. Following a brief period of work as a clinical veterinarian and then as a Virology Section Leader at the state of Victoria Department of Primary Industries in Australia, Dr. Dunowska moved back to New Zealand in 2008 to take up an academic position at Massey University. She has published 70 peer-reviewed papers and presented her work at numerous conferences. She serves as an editorial board member for several journals including New Zealand Veterinary Journal and Pathogens. Dr. Dunowska has broad research interests that include viruses of both domesticated animals and wildlife, and has a special interest in emerging veterinary pathogens.
