Americans have infected wild deer with COVID-19 hundreds of times, and an analysis of thousands of animal samples shows that people have also caught and spread variants from deer at least three times. Sometimes.
analysis published on monday This began in the first year of a multi-year federal effort to investigate the spread of the virus in U.S. wildlife, led by the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).
Scientists analyzed 8,830 samples from wild white-tailed deer in 26 states and Washington, D.C. between November 2021 and April 2022, studying the novel coronavirus variant that infected 282 of them. .
By comparing the deer virus sequences with other publicly reported samples, Database of human infectious diseases They were able to track the possible spread of these variants between humans and animals around the world.
A total of 109 “independent spillovers” were identified, matching viruses found in deer with viruses likely derived from previously infected humans.
Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Some of these viruses are still mutating and appear to be spreading among deer. Among them are the problematic alpha, gamma, and delta variants that caused an increase in mortality early in the pandemic, and it has been quite some time since these lineages were incorporated into the continuing wave of omicron variants. Even after it passed, to the national conquest.
Efforts to trace the human precursor variant failed, as 18 of the samples did not report “genetically close human SARS-CoV-2 sequences within the same state.”
“Overall, this study indicates that the frequent introduction of new human viruses into free-ranging white-tailed deer continues to occur, and that SARS-CoV-2 VOCs are still present in white-tailed deer even after their variants became rare in white-tailed deer. “The human population,” the authors of the study wrote.
Three of them had mutations consistent with another so-called ‘spilledback’, a characteristic pattern of first spreading from humans to deer and then from deer back to humans. Two of these shed variants were in North Carolina and one in Massachusetts.
Investigations with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention allowed us to trace three individuals infected with this distinctive strain of deer mutation, as well as several zoo lions also infected with the same strain.
None of the people said they had had close contact with deer or zoos.
zoonotic disease
APHIS researchers study Whether, among several wildlife species in the United States, white-tailed deer may serve as so-called ‘reservoir species’ for long-term viral latency as they mutate viral adaptations. Spread among deer.
from previous reports Canadian scientist A ‘highly divergent SARS-CoV-2 lineage’ that infected humans from deer was discovered.
Government scientists are also concerned about how the virus might affect animals, as it can be transmitted between humans and wildlife.
“Deer interact with humans on a regular basis and are commonly found in human environments, such as near our homes, pets, sewers and garbage,” said study author Xiufeng Wang, a professor at the University of Missouri. said in the news. release We will announce the results.
The authors of the paper pointed to other examples of disease spread between humans and deer, including a previous outbreak of bovine tuberculosis among deer. it was linked For local “nutrition” efforts to maintain Michigan’s wild deer population.
The CDC has previously urged Americans to avoid close contact with wild animals and their droppings to minimize the spread of the disease. of SARS-CoV-2 Similarly, other dangerous so-called zoonotic disease It spreads between humans and animals.
“The potential for SARS-CoV-2 and other zoonotic diseases to persist and evolve within wildlife populations could pose unique public health risks,” Wang said.
