White-tailed deer in Ohio discovered to carry COVID -19 virus

Study published in Nature Communications says phenomenon suggests more frequent transmission between humans and animals than previously thought

 COLUMBUS, Ohio – Researchers have found evidence that white-tailed deer in Ohio are infected with the COVID -19 virus.

A study published in Nature Communications says the phenomenon suggests more frequent transmission between humans and animals than previously thought.

For the study, 1,522 nasal swabs were collected from wild deer in 83 of Ohio’s 88 counties between November 2021 and March 2022.

Analysis revealed that more than 10% of these samples contained coronavirus.

Genetic analysis of the virus revealed that approximately 30 infections in deer could be traced to human sources.

The researchers also tested blood samples for antibodies indicating previous exposure to the virus.

They estimated that about 23.5% of the Ohio deer population had been infected with the virus at some point.

The research suggests that white-tailed deer act as a “reservoir” for coronavirus, allowing the virus to mutate rapidly within the deer population.

Strains of the virus, including the original alpha variant and the delta variant, continue to be common among deer despite their decline in the human population.

Meanwhile, a new Covid 19 variant, designated BA.2.86, is being observed in several countries. This variant, an offshoot of the Omicron variant, has 35 mutations and has been identified in the U.S., Switzerland, South Africa, Israel, Denmark, and the U.K.

However, experts believe that the robust immune defenses developed through vaccination and prior infection will likely prevent a major outbreak from this new variant, in contrast to the devastating consequences of the emergence of the Omicron variant in 2021.