Deactivation of SARS-CoV-2 surrogate porcine epidemic diarrhea virus with electron beam irradiation under the cold chain transportation condition

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has prevailed all over the world and emerged as a significant public health emergency. The rapid outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 is largely due to its high transmission capacity. Studies implied that the cold chain logistics would be a potential route for the spread of SARS-CoV-2. The low temperature condition of the cold chain is conducive to survival and transmission of virus. Thus, the virus disinfection in cold chain should not be neglected for controlling COVID-19. However, due to the low temperature feature of the cold-chain, the virus disinfecting methods suitable in cold chain are limited. Here the high-energy electron beam irradiation is proposed to disinfect the SARS-CoV-2 in cold chain logistics. We evaluated the impact of high-energy electron beam irradiation on porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), an enveloped virus surrogate for SARS-CoV-2, and explored the possible mechanism of the action of high-energy electron beam irradiation on PEDV. The irradiation dose of 10 kGy inactivated 98.1 % PEDV on the both top and bottom surfaces of various packaging materials under cold chain frozen condition. High-energy electron beam inactivated PEDV by inducing damages on viral genome or even capsid.