One we might have missed
In 2005, a research group from Belgium postulated that the ancestor of
hCoV-OC43 – one of the current human coronaviruses responsible for a common cold – jumped from cattle to humans, leading to what they described as a pandemic of respiratory disease recorded around 1890 in human history.
The researchers argue that in the second half of the 19th century a highly infectious respiratory disease with a high mortality rate, now known as contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, affected cattle herds around the world. Even though most industrialised countries mounted massive culling operations in the period between 1870 and 1890 and were able to eradicate the disease by the beginning of the 20th century, it is plausible that the culling personnel, animal handlers and farmers could have been exposed to coronavirus-infected bovine respiratory secretions.
Around the same time as this coronavirus jump from cow to human could have taken place, a human epidemic attributed to influenza was spreading around the world. This 1889-1890 pandemic was characterised by a general feeling of illness and discomfort, fever, and pronounced central nervous system symptoms. Strangely, the observed central nervous system symptoms were more pronounced during this epidemic than in other influenza outbreaks.