Coronaviruses in animals and humans

Coronaviruses have been around for many years and were first discovered in the 1960s. They include viruses contributing to the common cold (HCoV-229E) and a variety of animal and avian coronaviruses, such as infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), which infects poultry. Coronaviruses typically cause respiratory or gastrointestinal illness, but strains of IBV have been shown to target the oviduct in chickens, and others can cause severe kidney disease.

Animal and avian coronaviruses can have high mortality rates among infected animals and illustrate the difficulties in developing vaccines. Similar to influenza viruses, despite many decades of research there is no vaccine that protects against all strains of IBV coronavirus. This is due in part to the continuously shifting diversity in the virus spike glycoprotein,
a major immunogenic target and hence a good vaccine candidate for animal and human infections.