Amid the Coronavirus outbreak, the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) in UP’s Bareilly is working to develop a vaccine, diagnostic kits and study the transmission dynamics of Coronavirus in pets and wild animals.

The IVRI will be collaborating with IIT-Roorkee on the project to find an effective anti-viral drug against SARS-CoV-2 under a special drive called ‘Intensification of Research in High Priority Area’ (IRHPA).

The study intends to search for small molecule inhibitors targeting some of the most important viral replication enzymes.

In India no animal species has been found COVID-19 positive so far but there have been reports of a tiger at Bronx zoo in New York and a few other pets – particularly cats and dogs – in Hong Kong testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 virus, the cause of Coronavirus.

There have been many reports of people abandoning their pets because of the scare of the virus.

IVRI Director RK Singh said, “The IVRI has decided to work on developing a vaccine for Corona for domestic and wild animals. This is being done on the directives of the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR). We are also planning to make diagnostic kits which can be used in the laboratory as well as the field.”

Very few institutes in the country are testing both human and animal samples for COVID-19, IVRI is one of them.

In case Corona spreads among the domestic and wildlife species in the near future, the virus will undergo genetic changes to adapt better to these animals, according to Singh.

He said, “Our efforts are also aimed at the study of the transmission dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 in domestic and wild animals and control its spread among them. Active monitoring has to be done in different animal species and preventive measures should be put in place to control its spread. For such measures, surveillance tools have to be developed – which include diagnostic kits.”

The IVRI will be collaborating with IIT-Roorkee on the project to find an effective anti-viral drug against SARS-CoV-2 under a special drive called ‘Intensification of Research in High Priority Area’ (IRHPA).

The study intends to search for small molecule inhibitors targeting some of the most important viral replication enzymes.