Researchers in Saudi Arabia discovered fragments of the Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in the air surrounding an infected camel.

MERS is a dangerous viral respiratory illness that was first reported in 2012 in Saudi Arabia. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the majority of people who have been diagnosed with MERS-CoV infection developed severe acute respiratory illness, and approximately 30 percent of people with this infection have died.

In the new study, which is published in mBio®, the online journal of the American Society for Microbiology, researchers gathered three separate air samples for three consecutive days from a camel owned by a MERS patient, who later died from the disease. Four of the man’s camels began showing signs of the virus before the patient fell ill. Before the patient started experiencing symptoms, he had applied a topical medication in the nose of one of the sick camels.

The researchers discovered genetic fragments of MERS-CoV from the first air sample collected, which was the same day that one of the camels tested positive for the virus.

Lead study author Esam Azhar, PhD, head of the Special Infectious Agents Unit at King Fahd Medical Research Center and associate professor of medical virology at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, says the virus is characterized by intermittent shedding of fragments into the air surrounding an infected patient, based on the fact that the subsequent air samples did not test positive for MERS-CoV after the first sample did.

“The clear message here is that detection of airborne MERS-CoV molecules, which were 100 percent identical with the viral genomic sequence detected from a camel actively shedding the virus in the same barn on the same day, warrants further investigations and measures to prevent possible airborne transmission of this deadly virus,” said Azhar in a statement.

The researchers are working on determining whether or not the virus can be contracted through airborne particles rather than direct contact.