Camels are getting a lot of bad press on the infectious disease front lately. There’s been the ongoing question of their role in the epidemiology of the very serious Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). This enigmatic virus (like the similarly deadly SARS coronavirus) is a tremendous public health concern, with high deaths rates in infected people, and its origins remain unclear. Recent studies have found the MERS-CoV virus in camels, and that, along with finding that a large percentage of healthy camels harbor antibodies against the virus, has lead to suggestions that camels might be the natural hosts for the virus. (They could still be innocent bystanders, infected from the same source(s) that infects people, but evidence implicating camels is increasing.)

On top of that, H3N8 equine influenza virus has recently been found in camels from Mongolia. The camels weren’t sick, but it raises some interesting questions. The H3N8 equine flu virus has been relatively stable for decades, with only minor changes compared to the degree of variability found in typical human influenza viruses. While there’s lots of concern about influenza viruses moving to humans, this particular one hasn’t raised much attention. It made the jump to dogs a few years back, resulting in emergence of H3N8 canine influenza, but not much remarkable has happened with it outside of horses. Presumably, the finding of H3N8 flu in camels is a result of transmission of the virus from infected horses. However, what remains to be seen if whether this virus can/will cause problems (e.g. illness) in camels, whether it frequently moves from horses to camels, and whether camels can then infect horses or other species.

Presumably, these two issues (particularly the MERS-CoV problem) will lead to more attention to various infectious diseases in camels. In general, the more you look, the more you find, so it’s likely that other potential infectious disease issues will be identified. Whether this means there are truly emerging issues in camels or whether some of these issues have been going on under the radar for some time remains to be seen.

Photo credit: S. Taheri (own work)(click image for source)