The massive outbreak of newly emerged coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been rapidly spread worldwide, leading to a pandemic infection and serious global health emergency. In order to prevent further dissemination of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS- CoV-2), understanding the in vivo characteristics of viral infection and transmission is of high priority. Specifically, an animal model that recapitulates the COVID-19 clinical symptoms in human infection is urgently needed in order to decipher the transmission routes and pathobiology of this virus and ultimately allow testing of pharmaceutical interventions. With our expertise in the development of animal model, we have recently established a ferret model for SARS-CoV-2 infection and transmission that highly recapitulates aspects of the human infection. The main goal of this study is to comprehensively characterize ferret animal model for SARS-CoV-2 infection, transmission and pathogenesis for vaccine interventions.
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