For animal specimens, the nucleic acid extractions were performed with the
Kingfisher Flex Instrument (Thermo Fisher Inc., Waltham, MA, USA), using the
MagMAX™ Viral/Pathogen Nucleic Acid Isolation Kit (Thermo Fisher Inc., Waltham, MA, USA), according to the manufacturers’ instructions. The MVP_Flex_200 ul protocol was used with 200 µL specimen volume and an elution volume of 100 µL. Human specimen control (HSC; A549 cell suspension) was included as an extraction control and water as a negative control.
rRT-PCR testing of animal specimens for SARS-CoV-2 was performed on the
ABI 7500 Fast Dx Real-time PCR system (Thermo Fisher Inc., Waltham, MA, USA) using the CDC influenza SARS-CoV-2 (FluSC2) multiplex assay (
https://www.fda.gov/media/139743/download; accessed on 1 November 2022) and
TaqPath™ 1-Step Multiplex Master Mix (No ROX) (Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Waltham, MA, USA). rRT-PCR negative specimens were further tested for β-Actin using the Taq polymerase enzyme mentioned above. An animal was classified as “rRT-PCR positive” if specimens from the animal tested positive by at least one diagnostic specimen (oropharyngeal swab, nasal swab, or rectal swab).
Virus isolation was performed by USDA-NVSL as previously described [34 (
link)].
Cossaboom C.M., Wendling N.M., Lewis N.M., Rettler H., Harvey R.R., Amman B.R., Towner J.S., Spengler J.R., Erickson R., Burnett C., Young E.L., Oakeson K., Carpenter A., Kainulainen M.H., Chatterjee P., Flint M., Uehara A., Li Y., Zhang J., Kelleher A., Lynch B., Retchless A.C., Tong S., Ahmad A., Bunkley P., Godino C., Herzegh O., Drobeniuc J., Rooney J., Taylor D, & Barton Behravesh C. (2022). One Health Investigation of SARS-CoV-2 in People and Animals on Multiple Mink Farms in Utah. Viruses, 15(1), 96.