G. Meyer, Nicole Pavio, S. Le Poder, E. Khamisse, P. Brown, François Meurens, M. Ar Gouilh, Gaëlle Simon, Elodie Monchatre-Leroy, Charlotte Dunoyer, Unité Evaluation des risques liés à la santé, l’alimentation et au bien-être des animaux (UERSABA), Direction de l'Evaluation des Risques (DER), Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l'alimentation, de l'environnement et du travail (ANSES)-Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l'alimentation, de l'environnement et du travail (ANSES), Groupe de Recherche sur l'Adaptation Microbienne (GRAM 2.0), Université de Rouen Normandie (UNIROUEN), Normandie Université (NU)-Normandie Université (NU)-Université de Caen Normandie (UNICAEN), Normandie Université (NU), Service de Virologie [CHU Caen], CHU Caen, Normandie Université (NU)-Tumorothèque de Caen Basse-Normandie (TCBN)-Normandie Université (NU)-Tumorothèque de Caen Basse-Normandie (TCBN), Laboratoire de Ploufragan-Plouzané-Niort [ANSES], Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l'alimentation, de l'environnement et du travail (ANSES), Biologie, Epidémiologie et analyse de risque en Santé Animale (BIOEPAR), Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Interactions hôtes-agents pathogènes [Toulouse] (IHAP), Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire de Toulouse (ENVT), Institut National Polytechnique (Toulouse) (Toulouse INP), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Institut National Polytechnique (Toulouse) (Toulouse INP), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Laboratoire de la rage et de la faune sauvage de Nancy (LRFSN), Virologie UMR1161 (VIRO), and École nationale vétérinaire d'Alfort (ENVA)-Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l'alimentation, de l'environnement et du travail (ANSES)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)
This document was prepared thanks to the collective expertappraisal, carried out by the Anses’expert group‘GECUCovid-19’(ANSES opinion 2020-SA-0037), chaired by Sophie Le Poder and whose members for the animal health component are cited in the authors.; International audience; In late December 2019, an outbreak of clustered cases of pneumonia associated with a novel coronavirus was reported by the Chinese authorities to the World Health Organization (WHO). Several initial confirmed cases were linked to a wetmarket selling live animals and seafood products in Wuhan(Hubei province), China (Huang et al.,2020). On 30 January 2020, the WHO declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. On 11 February 2020, the causative pathogen was officially named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), responsible for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) (DuToit, 2020). Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 is mainly transmitted from person to person, by direct or indirect contact, through infectious microdroplets emitted wheninfected individuals spit, sneeze or cough (Bernard Stoecklin et al.,2020). The massive circulation of this new pandemiccoronavirus with a probable zoonotic origin raised questions on its ability to spillover to animal species and on the potential consequences of such events on both animals and humans. This public health concern came to the attention of animal health authorities given the close contacts between humans and domestic animals. Therefore, in France, the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES) established an Emergency Collective Expert Appraisal Group (Groupe d’Expertise Collective d’Urgence, GECU‘Covid-19’). The GECU ‘Covid-19’ urgently convened on 4 March 2020 and 8 April 2020 to conduct an evaluation of the potential role of domestic animals in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.