Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic represents one of the greatest public health
crises in recent history that caused unprecedented and massive
disruptions of social and economic life globally. It is widely
acknowledged that bats are the animal reservoir of coronavirus 2 of the
severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of
the human coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). It has also long been
known that coronaviruses circulate among different animal species.
However, much remain to be understood of the epidemiology, the presumed
existence of intermediate animal species and current and potential
animal routes of SARS-Cov-2 transmission to humans. The recent
observational and experimental studies also highlight the role of
domestic and farmed animals in the epidemiology of COVID-19. This raises
concerns of the potential spread of infection among susceptible animal
species, with the risk of evolving into panzootic, and the likely
occurrence of anthropozoonoses or reverse zoonosis (from humans to
animals). As for other wildlife emerging pathogens, the animal-human
spillover of SARS-CoV-2 is linked to a closer interface with humans,
with the resulting risk of a pandemic. This knowledge has meaningful
implications for the design of effective wildlife animal surveillance
(epidemic intelligence) targeting CoVs in animal reservoirs, and
requires the mobilization of different lines of expertise, notably
veterinary epidemiologists and virologists, within a multi-disciplinary
approach according to the One-Health principles.