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The new coronavirus appears to have passed somehow from humans to wild deer in parts of the United States.
In the northeast of the country, a recent federal investigation found neutralizing antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in 40 percent of all white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) that have been sampled.
In Michigan alone, 67% of deer in the wild showed immune markers for the coronavirus in their blood tests.
This is the first evidence of widespread exposure to SARS-CoV-2 in wildlife, and although the preprint study has yet to be verified and peer reviewed, the results are concerning.
Although none of the deer exhibited adverse health effects, the presence of specific antibodies in their blood suggests that they have recently fought off the virus.
By silently harboring and propagating this pathogen, scientists fear that deer populations will allow SARS-CoV-2 to adapt and evolve into new strains – ones that could eventually re-infect humans years later with even greater transmissibility and severity than before.
After all, the white-tailed deer in the United States comes across our species a lot, whether it’s fieldwork, conservation work, feeding, hunting, or human sewage, providing a perfect route. for a virus to spread back and forth.
“The geographic distribution of this species encompasses most of North America and these animals are particularly abundant near urban population centers in the eastern United States,” the authors write in their article.
“Additionally, white-tailed deer can form social groups, a contact structure with the potential to promote intraspecific transmission of multiple pathogens. “
Since the start of the global pandemic, scientists have been concerned about the shift of the novel coronavirus from humans to another animal species, known as the zoonotic flashback.
Last year, for example, an epidemic among farmed mink led to a mass slaughter of cattle in Europe and the United States. But unlike captive animals, infections in wild animals are not that easy to control.
This is why scientists are so concerned about the recent discoveries. If SARS-CoV-2 can indeed find refuge in nature, this could make its eradication extremely difficult. If the virus adapts to another species and then re-infects humans, our vaccines could be much less effective in the future.
Recently in Utah, an apparently healthy wild mink tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, becoming the first free-range animal to catch the virus. As scientists had predicted, however, this was probably just the tip of the iceberg. Now it seems obvious that the virus has also taken off among wild deer.
These free-range animals will need to be tested for viral RNA if we are to be absolutely sure that they are providing a reservoir for the new coronavirus, but the presence of antibodies in their blood suggests that they have been exposed in some way. of another.
Previous laboratory studies have shown that white-tailed deer are very susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 and that one infected individual of this species can infect another.
This new investigation suggests that a similar spread could be occurring in the wild, although more research is needed to understand how this happens.
The team had access to 385 wild white-tailed deer serum samples from January to March 2021, as well as 239 samples archived from 2011 to 2020, which they tested for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies.
Before the pandemic began in 2019, government researchers found no immune markers for the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the blood of wild deer. After the start of the pandemic, however, these antibodies began to appear more and more.
In 2020, blood proteins specific to SARS-CoV-2 were found in three deer. In the first three months of this year, however, nearly half of 385 blood samples taken from deer in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Illinois and New York City showed the same neutralizing antibodies.
It is still unclear how these deer were exposed to the virus. It could have jumped directly from humans, or it could have been transmitted by cattle or wildlife that came into contact with us, and then on white-tailed deer.
As such, US officials are calling for increased surveillance of wildlife, especially among predators and scavengers that regularly interact with deer.
“If there is a common source of exposure for deer, then probably the same source may be exposing other animals,” said virologist Arinjay Banerjee of the University of Saskatchewan, who was not involved in the ‘study. Nature.
SARS-CoV-2 can spread in nature faster than we can mop up.
The study was published in bioRxiv.
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