(ORDO NEWS) — Scientists at Cornell University have found that variants of COVID-19 that no longer circulate in humans continue to circulate in white-tailed deer.
Biologists collected 5,700 deer lymph node samples between 2020 and 2022 in New York State.
They not only found alpha, beta and gamma variants of SARS-CoV-2 in deer, but also found many mutations in the virus genome.
This means that the viruses could have been circulating among the animals for many months.
At the time of the study, these variants had not been circulating in humans for four to six months.
Deer may have contracted COVID-19 through constant human contact during hunting, wildlife rehabilitation, wildlife feeding, or through sewage.
The scientists believe that the mutations in the virus may have allowed it to spread better among the deer.
This means that the virus, having spread to humans from an animal reservoir in Asia, has now found a new reservoir in the wild in North America.
White-tailed deer are the most numerous large mammals in North America, with more than 30 million in the United States. Earlier, in a 2022 study, COVID-19 was found in 40% of white-tailed deer.
At the moment, scientists are not sure if deer can serve as long-term reservoirs for these obsolete variants.
Their study, however, showed the importance of regularly monitoring the virus in populations of these animals and the predators that prey on them.
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