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CORVALLIS, Oregon – Oregon State University has detected several mutant strains of COVID-19 in Oregon, including the highly contagious British strain in a sample from Bend.
Bend’s sewage sample was found on December 22, and genetic sequencing performed by OSU revealed the British strain on January 21.
“The OHA is working quickly with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and partners statewide to implement COVID-19 sequencing surveillance to track changes in viral mutations over time. All viruses mutate and these variations are not unexpected, ”said Dr. Melissa Sutton, OHA Medical Director of Respiratory Viral Pathogens.
“We will see COVID-19 variants increase and decrease in abundance in our population over time and the rise of a new variant is not necessarily alarming. However, variant surveillance is critical to our understanding of disease transmission, disease severity, ability to avoid testing, vaccine efficacy, and resistance to treatment, ”he said. she declared.
Since last spring, the university’s Center for Genome Research and Biocomputing has been performing genetic sequencing on all COVID-19 positive samples obtained from TRACE tests of individuals and wastewater from OSU campuses and communities in Oregon.
In recent weeks, researchers have looked for evidence of variants of SARS-CoV-2, including the British, South African and Brazilian variants which have been shown to be more contagious than common variants of the virus.
“With the arrival of new variants, it becomes increasingly important to understand which variants are circulating between communities,” said Brett Tyler, director of the Genome Center.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stepped up surveillance for mutant spots across the country, as agency experts fear the mutant strains could possibly escape the vaccine being distributed, especially if there are delays in getting the second dose of vaccine needed by people. strong immunity. Since the current UK, South Africa and Brazil mutants are more contagious and spread faster, contact tracing will need to be swift to prevent further spread.
On Monday, the OSU lab completed genetic sequencing of more than 1,100 samples – 936 wastewater samples and 174 individual samples from the TRACE OSU and TRACE Community surveys statewide. In Oregon, only OSU and OHSU in Portland are currently performing genetic sequencing on viral samples.
Five individuals tested at OSU’s Corvallis campus were positive for the “L452R” mutant strain of COVID-19. The strain was also present in the campus wastewater samples.
“This strain is not the most worrying, like the other three (variants from UK, South Africa and Brazil), but it has spread widely in southern California and has been associated with recent major epidemics in Santa Clara County, ”Tyler said.
As the country enters the vaccination phase of the pandemic, it will become more important to know exactly which viral strains are circulating, as they could impact the effectiveness of the vaccine, said Tyler Radniecki, associate professor of engineering at OSU and responsible for the wastewater sampling of TRACE.
“The more the pandemic gets, the more genetic variation we see in the virus, and some variations in this phase of the pandemic may well matter,” Radniecki said.
“Wastewater sampling is particularly powerful because of its broad scope,” Tyler said. “Each sample represents a survey of an entire community, or sub-section of a community, which is much more cost effective than testing people one by one.”
OHA will partner with OSU to expand its wastewater monitoring to all counties in the state, Radniecki said. All samples from these sites will be sequenced weekly.
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