• THE COVID-19

The recent COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel human coronavirus, referred to

as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), not only is

having a great impact on the health care systems and economies in all continents but

it is also causing radical changes of common habits and life styles. And has a high

probability of zoonotic origin, but the role of animals in the COVID-19

epidemiology is still largely unknown. However, CoVs have been known in animals

since several decades, so that veterinary coronavirologists have a great expertise on

these viruses and on how to face infections in animals.

The present thesis after a short review of CoVs infections in animals, makes an

up-to-date review of the recent literature as well as of currently available

information, gathered from international reliable sources, on the main veterinary

aspects of SARS-CoV-2 infections. The interest will be mainly focused on the

animal origin of the virus; the susceptibility to the virus of different animal species,

both wild and domestic; the role that these species can play in the epidemiology of

COVID 19 pandemia.