A study with ferrets confirms that the coronavirus is transmitted through the air

"This study provides experimental evidence of strong transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by air, supporting the implementation of social distancing measures at the community level that are already being applied in many countries" he defended the group of researchers led by Mathilde Richard.

According to what was specified, in principle a sample of coronavirus from a German patient who had been infected in China was inoculated with one of the ferrets in his laboratory and placed in a cage next to another that was not infected.

After six hours, another uninfected ferret was placed in a cage separated by two bars with a distance of 10 centimeters between them, in order to avoid the possibility of direct contagion with the ferret that had the virus.

In turn, an air current was applied that left the cage of the infected ferret in the direction of that of the virus-free ferret. [19659005] "To avoid cross-contamination, we sampled swabs from the throat and nasal and rectal passages of each ferret every other day," they noted.

The experiment revealed transmission by contact, but also transmission by air in three of the four cases.

"While those who were inoculated with a high-dose virus, ferrets who had direct or indirect contact with them had lower exposure. Despite this, the contagion pattern shown by all ferrets is similar, "it was detailed.