Viruses have been increasingly shifting from animals to people, a recent trend that has researchers at Ohio State University closely studying a pig virus that can survive in human cells.

The rise in viruses jumping to other species, so-called “spillover” events, is spurred by people — particularly in the developing world — cultivating land that was once isolated forests.

In clearing those areas, people are exposing themselves to the viruses of wild animals that once lived secluded in those forests, explains Scott Kenney, an assistant professor of veterinary preventative medicine at the OSU College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES).

Kenney’s research focuses on viruses that spread between animals and people, including hepatitis E virus, arterivirus, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), porcine circovirus and Zika virus. He works in the Food Animal Health Research Program at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center in Wooster.

Exotic animal markets

Exotic live-animal markets are another place where animals — some of them infected with viruses — mingle with people who are handling them or eating around them.

“It’s the perfect place for a virus outbreak,” Kenney says.

Individuals in that marketplace might touch the waste, spit, or blood of a live animal, and then consume the virus by not washing their hands before eating, or simply by touching their face. The pathogen can then multiply inside the new host, overcoming the person’s immune response. Once in the infected person, the virus can then change to become transmittable from person to person.

COVID-19 is but one of many diseases in recent years that are zoonotic, which means starting in animals and shifting to people.

“Many viruses adapt as they move from species to species, picking up new abilities to leap the barriers presented by different hosts along the way,” Kenney says.

Other zoonotic viruses

Before the novel coronavirus that has triggered a world pandemic, Ebola — possibly coming from bats or primates in Africa — transferred to people, and now kills 70% or more of the people it sickens.

Other examples include severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), both coronaviruses that likely started in bats. The SARS coronavirus moved into a small Asian mammal called the palm civet, the MERS coronavirus moved into camels and then both made the jump into people. SARS kills about 10% of the people it infects; MERS, about 30%.

Every year, another familiar virus spills over from animals to people: the common flu. Arriving in migratory birds that fly from Asia, the flu virus is spread among birds, including chickens, and among mammals, including pigs and humans.

“We’re lucky in that many of these previous virus spillovers have not been rapid spreaders and require direct contact to infect someone,” Kenney says.

Coronaviruses adept at interspecies movement

Coronaviruses are particularly adept at jumping species because — unlike many other viruses — they can recombine and change quickly, adapting to be able to overcome the natural barriers to moving into a different species.

One coronavirus, the porcine deltacoronavirus, is especially concerning to Kenney and other researchers at CFAE. This is why they are closely watching the progression of the virus. So far found only in pigs, the porcine deltacoronavirus has the potential to shift to humans, Kenney says.

First identified in 2012 in Chinese pigs, the virus later caused an outbreak of diarrhea in Iowa, Illinois and Ohio pigs, killing some of them.

In 2018, Kenney, along with colleagues from CFAES and the Netherlands, showed that the porcine deltacoronavirus can bind to and enter human cells. Researchers have yet to determine if a pig infected with the deltacoronavirus has sickened other animals, such as chickens, or has passed it on to humans.

“At this point we don’t know if people are already getting sick from porcine deltacoronavirus, or if people have adapted to be resistant to infection,” Kenney says.

Similar pig coronaviruses known about since the 1940s have not triggered diseases in people.

“So, that suggests a human pandemic is unlikely, but with viruses you can never say never,” Kenney says. “We don’t want to be caught off guard again, struggling to understand a novel disease — and playing catchup developing drugs and vaccines while people are dying.”

DeMartini is the technical editor for OSU CFAES.

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