| 要旨トップ | 目次 | 日本生態学会第70回全国大会 (2023年3月、仙台) 講演要旨
ESJ70 Abstract


一般講演(ポスター発表) P1-336  (Poster presentation)

SARS-COV-2 infection surveillance in Hokkaido wildlife【A】【E】

*Anastasiia KOVBA(Hokkaido Univ. Wildlife), Keita MATSUNO(Hokkaido Univ. Inst. Zoonosis), Mariko SASHIKA(Hokkaido Univ. Wildlife), Miku MINAMIKAWA(Hokkaido Univ. Wildlife), Mebuki ITO(Hokkaido Univ. Wildlife), Kotaro SHIMIZU(Hokkaido Univ. Wildlife), Michito SHIMOZURU(Hokkaido Univ. Wildlife), Manabu ONUMA(NIES), Masami YAMANAKA(Shiretoko Nature Foundation), Genta ITO(Shiretoko Nature Foundation), Toshio TSUBOTA(Hokkaido Univ. Wildlife)

In Hokkaido, invasive raccoon (Procyon lotor) numbers increased dramatically in the last few decades resulting in more frequent invasions of these animals to the urban areas. Since the frequent zoonotic transmission of a pathogen between wildlife and humans is involved in the emergence of a novel pathogen with a pandemic potential, not only the infection of humans to zoonotic viruses, but also the infection of animals close to human population to human viruses should be monitored. As such, we conducted a survey to evaluate the exposure of raccoons to SARS-CoV-2 (causative agent of COVID-19 disease) in Hokkaido. Nasal swabs and blood were collected from the animals captured in various parts of Hokkaido prefecture from the end of Delta variant wave and during the Omicron variant spread in Japan in 2022. No viral RNA was detected in nasal swabs from raccoons (0/185) indicating the absence of infection with SARS-CoV-2 at the time of animal capture. One of the 168 serum samples was positive in ELISA, but subsequent investigation suggested the absence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 specific antibodies. In conclusion, these results show the absence of exposure to SARS-COV-2 in raccoons in Hokkaido until now.


日本生態学会