Severe acute respiratory disease in American mink (Neovison vison) experimentally infected with SARS-CoV-2

An animal model that fully recapitulates the severe COVID-19 presentation in humans has been a top priority since the discovery of SARS-CoV-2 in 2019. Although multiple animal models are available for mild to moderate clinical disease, a non-induced model that develops severe acute respiratory disease has not been described. Mink experimentally infected with SARS-CoV-2 developed severe acute respiratory disease, as evident by clinical respiratory disease, radiological, and histological changes. Virus was detected in nasal, oral, rectal, and fur swabs. Deep sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 from oral swabs and lung tissue samples showed repeated enrichment for a mutation in the gene encoding for nonstructural protein 6 in open reading frame 1a/1ab. Together, these data indicate that American mink develop clinical features characteristic of severe COVID19 and as such, are uniquely suited to test viral countermeasures.