Coronavirus in the UK?

Equine coronavirus (ECoV) is a betacoronavirus associated with disease in individual animals and in groups of horses. Since 2011 it has been increasingly reported in disease outbreaks, mainly involving adult horses in the USA and Japan [1–3]. The virus primarily infects the small intestine, causing enteritis, and a faeco-oral route of transmission is suspected [4–6]. The main clinical signs associated with infection in adult horses are anorexia, lethargy and fever, with diarrhoea and colic signs less frequently reported [1,3]. In clinical adult cases the main haematological abnormalities are leucopenia with lymphopenia and/or neutropenia [1] and quantitative PCR (qPCR) to detect viral RNA in faeces is currently the test of choice to confirm infection. Most horses recover with supportive care and serious complications are rare; however, sepsis and encephalopathy associated with hyperammonaemia have been reported ...