Water buffalo, Sunda pangolins and mink are some of the mammals that are predicted to spread the coronaviruses based on their biology.
Life 17 November 2021.
By Carissa Wong.
Water buffalo are thought to be carriers of the coronaviruses.
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540 mammals are predicted to spread covid-19 using information about where they live and aspects of their biology.
According to the model, the Sunda pangolins and bats are among the top 10 per cent of species most likely to spread covid-19.
The coronaviruses, which cause covid-19, invades human and animal cells by engaging theACE2protein on host cells with its spikeProtein. This step is needed to transmit the disease to other hosts.
Understanding how well the ACE2 is binding to the coronaviruses spike can help scientists predict which animals are most likely to spread covid-19. Only around 300 species have access to the amino acid sequence that makes up the ACE2 protein.
Barbara Han and her colleagues at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in New York built a machine learning tool to predict whether the ACE2 protein from 5400 mammals can bind strongly enough to cause the original coronaviruses to spread.
White-tailed deer, which have high rates of infections in North America, are predicted to be able to harbour the virus.
The coronaviruses were found to be likely to spread among striped skunk, rats, deer mice, and some farmed species.
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To create the model, the team first estimated the binding strength of the spike to the ACE2 in 142 mammal species, and whether or not these species are likely to spread the coronaviruses based on this binding strength.
They trained the artificial intelligence to learn patterns between transmissibility and a set of ecological and biological traits. Animals' habitats, lifespan, diet, and body mass are included.
The model could guess the likelihood of different species being able to spread the coronaviruses if they had biological and ecological trait data.
Han says that the results must be followed up with studies to test the predictions.
Arinjay Banerjee is a researcher at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. The emergence of animal-adapted coronaviruses will be tracked through the use of surveillance.
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