A countrywide survey of camels shows that many, if not most, are infected with a strain genetically identical to that of the MERS virus, a team at Columbia University, King Saud University, and the EcoHealth Alliance reported. Researchers ran genetic tests on virus taken from nasal swabs of the animals, which is now leading to an investigation of "routes for human infection through exposure to camel milk or meat products,” says Abdulaziz Alagaili of King Saud University, who worked on the study, published in the journal mBio.
