Comparative assessment of SARS Coronavirus-2 variants in the ferret model

Viral replicative capacity and transmissibility of four SARS-CoV-2 strains that circulated early in the pandemic (an original, Washington/1, and representatives of the Alpha, Beta, and Delta lineages) were assessed in the ferret model. Various specimens from both inoculated and contact ferrets were deep sequenced with Illumina iSeq100 platform to evaluate viral genomic variants emerged during viral infection and transmission in ferret host.