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Volume 21, Number 6—June 2015
Dispatch

Acute Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Infection in Livestock Dromedaries, Dubai, 2014

Sung Sup Park, Ulrich WerneryComments to Author , Victor M. Corman, Emily Y.M. Wong, Alan K.L. Tsang, Doreen Muth, Susanna K. P. Lau, Kamal Khazanehdari, Florian Zirkel, Mansoor Ali, Peter Nagy, Jutka Juhasz, Renate Wernery, Sunitha Joseph, Ginu Syriac, Shyna K. Elizabeth, Nissy Annie Georgy Patteril, Patrick C. Y. Woo, and Christian Drosten
Author affiliations: Central Veterinary Research Laboratory, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (U. Wernery, K. Khazanehdari, R. Wernery, S. Joseph, G. Syriac, S.K. Elizabeth, N.A. Georgy Patteril); University of Bonn Medical Centre, Bonn, Germany (V.M. Corman, F. Zirkel, C. Drosten); German Centre for Infection Research, Bonn (V.M. Corman, F. Zirkel, C. Drosten); University of Hong Kong, China (E.Y.M. Wong, A.K.L. Tsang, D. Muth, S.K.P. Lau, P.C.Y. Woo); Dubai Camel Hospital, Dubai (M. Ali); Emirates Industry for Camel Milk and Products, Dubai (P. Nagy, J. Juhasz)

Main Article

Table 1

Results of cross-sectional study of MERS-CoV antibodies and RNA and MERS-CoV isolation in dromedary camels at 3 sampling sites, Dubai, March–June, 2014*

Serum antibody detection by ELISA† RNA detection by RT-PCR‡ Virus isolation§
Adults, >4 298/310 (96.1) 0/250 (0) 0/12 (0)
Subadults, 2–4 328/340 (96.5) 10/344 (2.9) ¶ 1/14 (7.1)
Calves, <1 92/108 (85.2)¶ 24/68 (35.3)¶ 6/44 (13.6) ¶
Unknown 68/85 (80) 11/209 (5.3) 1/12 (8.3)
Total 786/843 (93.2) 45/871 (5.1) 8/82 (9.6)

*MERS-CoV, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus; RT-PCR, reverse transcription PCR.
†ELISA used a recombinant MERS-CoV globular spike (S1) domain as described by Drosten et al. (11), modified by the reagent manufacturer (EUROIMMUN, Lübeck, Germany) for application with camel serum as validated by Corman et al. (12) and Memish et al (7). The anti-human conjugate was replaced by an anti-camel conjugate. The test was not selective for IgG.
‡RT-PCR targeting regions upstream of the envelope gene, as described by Corman et al. (13).
§Method as described by Drosten et al. (14).
¶Significantly different from grand mean (shown under Total), p<0.05 (χ2 test)

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