Reply to “Concerns About Misinterpretation of Recent Scientific Data Implicating Dromedary Camels in Epidemiology of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS)”
- aKSU Mammals Research Chair, Department of Zoology, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
- bCenter for Infection and Immunity, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA
- cEcoHealth Alliance, New York, New York, USA
- Address correspondence to W. Ian Lipkin, wil2001{at}columbia.edu.
REPLY
We thank Samara and Abdoun for this opportunity to extend the discussion of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection in dromedary camels (DCs) (1). Several research groups working with samples from DCs collected in the Middle East have independently reported findings consistent with ours (2, 3), including the detection of specific antibodies to MERS-CoV (4–14), MERS-CoV nucleic acid (8, 11–16), and …
