In the US state of Ohio, a considerable number of so-called white-tailed deer have apparently become infected with the Sars-CoV-2 virus. Like the team led by veterinarian Andrew Bowman from Ohio State University in the journal Nature reported it was able to detect the virus in 129 out of 360 animals in the wild. That would be 38.5 percent.
A genome analysis showed that the viruses actually come from humans. The samples taken between January and March 2021 contained virus variants that were circulating in human Covid patients at the time. The investigation also showed that there must have been transmissions in six different cases. So it wasn’t a single chain infection.
The route of infection is unclear. The vets speculate that the viruses might have taken a detour via the environment, for example via contaminated sewage that the animals drank. The deer all lived in relative proximity to human settlements. The researchers report that the consequences of the discovery cannot yet be assessed. In any case, humans have now created a new reservoir for the virus in the wild. “That could make it more difficult to contain and control Covid-19 in the future,” warns Bowman. The decisive factor now will be how the virus behaves in the animals, whether the infection lasts only for a short or long time and, above all, whether it can infect humans and other animal species.
The new study is further evidence that humans can become dangerous to animals amid the corona pandemic. So far there is evidence of infections in cats, dogs, perhaps in mink and – particularly spectacularly – in a Malay tiger cat in the New York Zoo.