Many of you will no doubt have read about the diarrhea that alpacas appear to be suffering from after attending shows this year. And some of those infections have been identified as Coronavirus. So what is Coronavirus?

Coronavirus is a genus of animal virus belonging to the family Coronaviridae.
Coronaviruses are enveloped viruses with a positive-sense single-stranded RNA genome and a helical symmetry.
The name "coronavirus" is derived from the Latin corona, meaning crown, as the virus envelope appears under electron microscopy (see below) to be crowned by a characteristic ring of small bulbous structures.



Coronaviruses primarily infect the upper respiratory and gastrointestinal tract of mammals and birds. Four to five different currently known strains of coronaviruses infect humans. The most publicized human coronavirus, SARS-CoV which causes SARS, has a unique pathogenesis because it causes both upper and lower respiratory tract infections and can also cause gastroenteritis.

Coronaviruses are believed to cause a significant percentage of all common colds in human adults. Coronaviruses cause colds in humans primarily in the winter and early spring seasons.

Coronaviruses also cause a range of diseases in farm animals and domesticated pets, some of which can be serious and are a threat to the farming industry. Economically significant coronaviruses of farm animals include:
Porcine coronavirus (transmissible gastroenteritis, TGE) and
Bovine coronavirus, which both result in diarrhea in young animals.

Feline enteric coronavirus is a pathogen of minor clinical significance, but spontaneous mutation of this virus can result in feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), a disease associated with high mortality.

There are two types of canine coronavirus (CCoV), one that causes mild gastrointestinal disease and one that has been found to cause respiratory disease.

Mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) is a coronavirus that causes an epidemic murine illness with high mortality, especially among colonies of laboratory mice.

In alpacas a good deal of work has been done by Chris Cebra at Oregon State University and basically in a study from 2003 they found that of 45 unweaned cria suffering from diarrhea 19 (41%) tested positive for coronavirus.