Abstract
Equine coronaviruses (
EC
oV) are the only coronavirus known to infect horses. So far, data on
EC
oV infection in horses remain limited to the
USA
, France and Japan and its geographic distribution is not well understood. We carried out
RT
‐
PCR
on 306 nasal and 315 rectal swabs and tested 243 sera for antibodies to detect coronavirus infections in apparently healthy horses in Saudi Arabia and Oman. We document evidence of infection with
EC
oV and
HKU
23 coronavirus by
RT
‐
PCR
. There was no conclusive evidence of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus infection in horses. Serological data suggest that lineage A betacoronavirus infections are commonly infecting horses in Saudi Arabia and Oman but antibody cross‐reactivities between these viruses do not permit us to use serological data alone to identify which coronaviruses are causing these infections.