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White-tailed deer on Staten Island found to carry the highly contagious Omicron variant This marks the first time the variant has been reported in wild animals.
The findings add to the growing evidence that white-tailed deer are easily infected by the virus. The results are likely to intensify concerns that deer, widely distributed in the United States and living near humans, could be a reservoir for the virus and a potential source of new variants.
Researchers have previously Common in deer in Iowa In late 2020 and early 2021 in parts of Ohio.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has confirmed deer infections in 13 more states – Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Virginia – Lyndsay Cole, a spokesperson for the agency’s Animal and Plant Health The Audit Service said on Thursday. These animals were infected with earlier variants of the virus.
Studies show that deer contract the virus from humans and then spread it to other deer, and there is no evidence that animals transmit it back to humans. But longer-term, widespread circulation of the virus in deer will offer more opportunities for the virus to mutate, potentially leading to new variants that can spread to humans or other animal species.
“The circulation of the virus in deer provides opportunities for it to adapt and evolve,” said veterinary microbiologist Vivek Kapur of Penn State University, who was part of the Staten Island research team. “And it’s likely to come back and haunt us in the future.”
The researchers also suggested that a deer with Omicron already had high levels of antibodies to the virus, suggesting it may have been infected before. Omicron proved that it can evade some defenses of the immune system in humans. If deer similarly escape immunity, animals infected during previous outbreaks may be vulnerable to re-infection.
The news that Omicron had breached white-tailed deer populations was not unexpected, experts said.
An infectious diseases veterinarian at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Dr. “It’s disappointing but not surprising,” said Scott Weese.
A virologist at the Sunnybrook Research Institute and the University of Toronto, Dr. “Omicron is pretty common,” said Samira Mubareka.
new researchNot yet published in a scientific journal, it is a partnership between Penn State researchers, the conservation nonprofit White Buffalo, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, and other agencies. as part of a deer population control studyWhite Buffalo is working with the city to capture local deer and spay some young males.
Between mid-December and late January, field workers collected nose and tonsil swabs from a smaller subset of animals, as well as blood samples from 131 captured deer.
The researchers suggested that about 15 percent of deer had antibodies to the virus in their blood and that the animals had been previously infected with the virus.
PCR testing of swabs from 68 deer revealed that seven of the animals were actively infected with the virus at the time of sampling. PCR tests also revealed that viral samples from seven deer had a mutation pattern suggestive of the Omicron variant.
Researchers have now sequenced four of these specimens and confirmed that at least four deer were infected by Omicron, which quickly spread to New York City’s human population in December.
Dr. “The last wave is spreading,” Kapur said.
Researchers warned that it’s impossible to draw comprehensive conclusions based on a single deer that tested positive for the virus and had high levels of antibodies in its blood. They could not rule out the possibility that the animal had developed these antibodies during the current infection.
But the scientists said that if the findings persist and deer are repeatedly infected with the new variants, it increases the risk of the animals becoming a reservoir for the virus.
“You can imagine it could be a never-ending, continuous cycle of deer circulating the virus among themselves and picking up new variants,” said Suresh Kuchipudi, a veterinary microbiologist who led the research team at Penn State.
How humans spread the virus to deer is unknown. Humans can spread the virus directly to animals—perhaps by hand-feeding in parks or gardens—or indirectly through wastewater or contaminated litter, the researchers said.
Dr. Mubareka stressed the need for longitudinal surveillance of Staten Island elk to determine how the variant evolved, whether it has spread to other wild animals and what level of disease it causes. Deer appeared asymptomatic when infected with earlier variants.
The researchers hope to conduct lab studies of the antibodies they’ve detected in Staten Island deer to try to determine which version of the virus is infected with each animal and how much these antibodies might protect against other variants.
Does Delta infection protect deer from being reinfected by Delta? Does it protect against Omicron? Does an Omicron infection protect against a future Delta infection?
“These are all open questions,” he said. Kurt Vandegrift, a disease ecologist and member of the research team at Penn State. “We’re brand new to finding these infections in the wild. That’s why we’re getting data and that’s why we need to do more surveillance.”
Meanwhile, the researchers said New Yorkers shouldn’t be afraid of their local deer, but it’s always good practice to keep a safe distance from wildlife.
several states, including New Jersey and Massachusetts In addition to general hygiene practices, he recommended additional precautions for hunters slaughtering animals in the field, such as avoiding the head, lungs and digestive tract. Dr. “Get vaccinated, wear a mask, wear gloves, wash your hands, but assume you can be exposed,” Mubareka said.
The scientists stressed that the best way to prevent deer from becoming a reservoir for the virus is to prevent it from spreading in humans. Omicron’s discovery in deer, Dr. “It’s a reminder and possibly a call to action that the pandemic isn’t over yet,” Kuchipudi said.
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