Investigating the Infectivity of Camelid Coronavirus and
Bovine Coronavirus in Camelids
Christopher Cebra, DVM
Oregon State University College of Veterinary Medicine
Corvallis, Oregon
$36,000 9/01/08-8/31/10
Recently, there have been a number of outbreaks of diarrhea and possibly respiratory disease in alpacas. These outbreaks often start with animals that attended a show, then later spread to numerous other animals at the home farm. Diarrhea outbreaks have fairly strongly been associated with coronavirus infection, and there is some evidence and suspicion that this virus is also associated with the respiratory tract disease. Little else is known about coronaviral infection in alpacas. This study investigates whether and how long coronavirus may infect both the respiratory tract and digestive tract of alpacas, using both virus originally isolated from a sick alpaca and closely-related virus isolated from cattle with both respiratory and digestive disease. We also propose to develop a new diagnostic test for coronavirus infection. These data and tools will allow us to make better recommendations concerning the importance of this infection, possible sources and routes of infection, recommended quarantine periods, and other factors or interest and importance.