SARS-CoV-2 does not replicate in embryonated hen ’s eggs or in MDCK cell lines

The advent of COVID-19, has posed a risk that human respiratory samples containing human influenza viruses may also contain SARS-CoV-2. This potential risk may lead to SARS-CoV-2 contaminating conventional influenza vaccine production platforms as respiratory samples are used to directly inoculate embryonated hen’s eggs and continuous cell lines that are used to isolate and produce influenza vaccines. We investigated the ability of these substrates to propagate SARS-CoV-2 and found that neither could support SARS-CoV-2 replication.

Source: Eurosurveillance - June 25, 2020 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Ian G Barr, Cleve Rynehart, Paul Whitney and Julian Druce Source Type: research