PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Sonalika Mahajan
AU  - Mathesh Karikalan
AU  - Vishal Chander
AU  - Abhijit M. Pawde
AU  - G Saikumar
AU  - M Semmaran
AU  - P Sree Lakshmi
AU  - Megha Sharma
AU  - Sukdeb Nandi
AU  - Karam Pal Singh
AU  - Vivek Kumar Gupta
AU  - Raj Kumar Singh
AU  - Gaurav Kumar Sharma
TI  - Systemic infection of SARS-CoV-2 in free ranging Leopard (<em>Panthera pardus fusca</em>) in India
AID  - 10.1101/2022.01.11.475327
DP  - 2022 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2022.01.11.475327
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/01/12/2022.01.11.475327.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/01/12/2022.01.11.475327.full
AB  - We report patho-morphological and virological characterization of SARS-CoV-2 in naturally infected, free ranging Indian Leopard (Panthera pardus fusca). Whole genome sequence analysis confirmed infection of Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, possibly spill over from humans, but the case was detected when infection level had dropped significantly in human population. This report underlines the need for intensive screening of wild animals for keeping track of the virus evolution and development of carrier status of SARS-CoV-2 among wildlife species.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.