ABSTRACT
This chapter considers that coronaviruses cause acute and chronic colitis in tamarins and marmosets. It reviews the data that support coronavirus involvement in cases of colitis in these primate species and propose approaches that would more firmly establish their role in this disease. Coronaviruses are 1 of 15 families of animal RNA viruses and as a family they are unique in both their electron microscopic appearance and in their molecular strategy for replication. The association of coronavirus-like particles with colitis in tamarins and marmosets and the established role of coronaviruses as enteric pathogens in many animal species suggest the possibility that they are the cause of chronic intestinal disease in these and other primates, and in humans. Culturable coronaviruses is that they readily establish persistent infections in cell culture without requiring special manipulation such as coinfection with defective interfering particles.
