Researchers may have uncovered an important clue that sheds light on why pigs don’t get sick when exposed to the coronavirus. Studies since the start of the pandemic have noted that pigs can be infected by the virus if exposed to high doses, but the infection is self-limited and pigs don’t show clinical signs of disease nor do they transmit the virus to other animals. So Rahul Nelli, a research assistant professor of veterinary diagnostic and production animal medicine at Iowa State University, and Luis Gimenez-Lirola, an associate professor of veterinary diagnostic and production animal medicine, set out to find out why in a new study in Cell Death Discovery. What they found could lead to new ways to treat humans who contract COVID-19, the disease that results from infection by the virus SARS-CoV-2, the researchers say. Nelli and Gimenez-Lirola have studied how coronaviruses affect pigs for years. They’ve developed models …