Current Advances and Applications of Animal Models in SARS-CoV-2 Pathogenesis and Vaccine Development

COVID-19 is the most widespread emerging infectious disease in humans, recently caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Understanding the pathogenesis and development of efficient vaccines is crucial for the prevention and control of this emerging disease. SARS-CoV-2 viruses have widespread hosts, including humans, domesticated/companion animals (cats, dogs), specific farmed animals (minks), specific wildlife (white-tailed deer), and laboratory animal models. Bats are considered the original reservoir, and pangolins may be important intermediate hosts. Suitable animal models play an important role in studying the pathogenicity and evaluation of vaccines and antiviral drugs during the preclinical stage. In this review, we summarized the animal models and potential animal models for the research of SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis, vaccine and antiviral drugs development, including transgenic mice, cats, hamsters, nonhuman primates, ferrets, and so on. Our summary provides the important information to select the animals used for a specific purpose and facilitates the development of novel vaccines and antivirals to prevent and control COVID-19.