With the emergence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) caused by a previously unrecognized coronavirus (SARS-CoV) in 2003 the question arose as to possible reservoirs among domestic livestock. A research team affiliated to the Canadian Food Inspection Service led by Dr. Hana M. Weingartl inoculated six-week-old hogs and SPF chickens with SARS-CoV to determine the effect of exposure.  An inoculation of 106 PFU of the virus was administered either intravenously, intranasally, intraocularly or orally.  Neither piglets nor chickens developed clinical signs.  There were no gross pathological changes on postmortem examination and attempts at re-isolation of virus were unsuccessful.  Viral RNA was detected by rt-PCR in the blood of both hogs and chickens during the first week after inoculation.  Hogs seroconverted to the virus. The authors concluded that neither chickens nor hogs could be involved in amplifying SARS virus, nor could they serve as reservoirs.

Following the emergence of COVID in 2020, a research team at the Southeastern Poultry Research Laboratory led by Dr. David L. Suarez evaluated the susceptibility of a range of poultry species to SARS-CoV-2 and the coronavirus responsible for Mideast Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).  Chickens, turkeys, ducks, quail and geese were inoculated with either of the viruses responsible for COVID or MERS by a variety of routes. Neither clinical signs nor pathology resulted from inoculation.  It was not possible to re-isolate the viruses from any of the various poultry species and none of the subjects seroconverted to either virus.   The research team determined that none of the poultry species could support multiplication or dissemination of COVID.

Weingartl, H.M. et al Susceptibility of pigs and chickens to SARS coronavirus. Emerging Infect. Dis. (2004) 10:179-184

Suarez, D. L. et al Lack of susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 and MERS-CoV in poultry. Emerging infect. Dis. (2020) 26:3074-3076.