White-tailed deer are a massive COVID-19 reservoir

CRS,DrPH...good info bad news [url]https://globalbiodefense.com/2021/11/08/white-tailed-deer-found-to-be-huge-reservoir-of-sars-cov-2-infection/[/url] or https://globalbiodefense.com/2021/11/08/white-tailed-deer-found-to-be-huge-reservoir-of-sars-cov-2-infection/  (hope this link leads to the article...otherwise your link leads to "not found" with article in the bottomright corner..);

detected the virus in 80% of deer sampled in Iowa between November 2020 and January 2021.

Such high levels of infection led the researchers to conclude that deer are actively transmitting the virus to one another. The scientists also identified different SARS-CoV-2 variants, suggesting there have been many human-to-deer infections.

The large numbers of white-tailed deer in North America and the fact that they often live close to people provide several opportunities for the disease to move between the two species. This can include wildlife management operations, field research, recreation, tourism and hunting. In fact, hunters are likely to be one of the most obvious sources of potential reinfection as they regularly handle dead animals. It has also been suggested that water sources contaminated with SARS-CoV-2 might provide a pathway for transmission, although this has yet to be proved.

Human-to-deer and deer-to-deer transmission are believed to be driving the rapid spread of the disease within white-tailed deer populations across the US. This is particularly apparent during the early months of 2021 when COVID infections were spiking in the human population. Previous studies have shown that SARS-CoV-2 can be passed from humans to domestic and captive animals including cats, dogs, zoo animals and, most notably, farmed mink. But, until now, the disease had not been shown to spread in wildlife species.

White-tailed deer are the most abundant large mammal in North America with a range extending from Canada to South America. The US population alone is estimated to number 30 million animals. They are a social species that live in family groups of two to 12 individuals that can thrive in a range of habitats, including urban parks and woodland.

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The findings from these latest studies have raised concerns that white-tailed deer could be a reservoir of SARS-CoV-2. Not only could this readily infect large numbers of animals, but also, more worryingly, it could spill back to humans.

This type of infection cycle was documented in workers on infected mink farms, which ultimately led to the Danish government euthanising their entire captive population of 17 million animals. It is important to underline that there is currently no evidence of SARS-CoV-2 transmission from white-tailed deer to humans. Initial experimental work has also suggests that infected deer tend not to have symptoms. Still, disease transmission in wildlife populations has considerable implications for human and animal health.

Potential Source of New Variants

There is the possibility that viral mutation in a reservoir host, such as white-tailed deer, could lead to new variants of the disease. These variants may lead to greater infection rates, increased virulence (severity of symptoms) and prove more effective at evading the human immune system. Likewise, any reinfection from wildlife reservoirs could also complicate our long-term efforts to fight and suppress the disease.

Influenza, which jumps readily between birds, humans and other mammals (particularly pigs), presented similar problems. These multiple reservoirs of disease can lead to new strains emerging that humans have lower immunity against, as was the case with swine flu in 2009.

It is important to note that there are limitations to these studies, both in terms of the methods used and the limited geographical range of investigation. The most recent and unpublished study used the latest genetic approaches to reliably detect SARS-CoV-2 in tissue samples but focused only on deer in Iowa. Whereas the antibody tests in the first study were conducted across four states but only show that the animal has been exposed to the virus. Yet the combined findings have highlighted that transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is likely to be widespread in white-tailed deer.

DJ It may be hard to overestimate the risks of SARS-2/CoViD-19 spreading in wildlife. Death deer will be eaten by cat/dog-like animals-both have showed to be able to get infected. In lab-studies also mice, rats showed they could catch the virus. Mink-like animals (some of them eat "everything") do not only catch but also spread CoViD in sometimes mutated [url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_5[/url] or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_5 forms...

Deer (more then one species of them) do spread the virus among deer. This means mutations, and so variants...The US alone has 30 million of the white tailed deer..[url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-tailed_deer[/url] or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-tailed_deer ; 

The white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, Ecuador, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia.^[2] It has also been introduced to New Zealand, all the Greater Antilles in the Caribbean (Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico^[3]), and some countries in Europe, such as the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Romania and Serbia.^[4][5] In the Americas, it is the most widely distributed wild ungulate.

In North America, the species is widely distributed east of the Rocky Mountains as well as in southwestern Arizona and most of Mexico, except Lower California. It is mostly displaced by the black-tailed or mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) from that point west except for mixed deciduous riparian corridors, river valley bottomlands, and lower foothills of the northern Rocky Mountain region from South Dakota west to eastern Washington and eastern Oregon and north to northeastern British Columbia and southern Yukon, including in the Montana valley and foothill grasslands. Texas is home to the most white-tailed deer of any U.S. state or Canadian province, with an estimated population of 5.3 million.^[6] High populations of white-tailed deer exist in the Edwards Plateau of central Texas. Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, Illinois, Wisconsin, Maryland, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Indiana also boast high deer densities.

The conversion of land adjacent to the Canadian Rockies to agriculture use and partial clear-cutting of coniferous trees, resulting in widespread deciduous vegetation, has been favorable to the white-tailed deer and has pushed its distribution to as far north as Yukon. Populations of deer around the Great Lakes have expanded their range northwards, also due to conversion of land to agricultural use, with local caribou and moose populations declining. The westernmost population of the species, known as the Columbian white-tailed deer, once was widespread in the mixed forests along the Willamette and Cowlitz River valleys of western Oregon and southwestern Washington, but current numbers are considerably reduced, and it is classified as near-threatened. This population is separated from other white-tailed deer populations.

DJ The "Virginia-deer" is also in Europe, New Zealand...and may be just one of the species that did get "non-human host for SARS-2"...

The more species a virus has as a host for viral reproduction the harder it gets to control the spread and even monitor new variants...

One possibility could be a virus developing "away" from humans...Vaccinations/immunity making humans not the most "welcoming" host...

Another option could be a more virulent virus has enough of hosts and can afford to lose some of them...For the virus some hosts going extinct would not be a problem at all...increasing viral production in remaining hosts (higher viral loads) would more then compensate for that. 

Wishfull thinking-so far the basis for inaction in this pandemic-was hoping for a mild virus...only giving a cold..In more species wishfull thinking would go for "developing away from humans" ...only question then is why should they virus react that way /

Massive spread of this mutaing high-speed virus (Delta+ variants most likely do spread even better then the Alfa variant most the basis in this white tailed deer study) may call for "survival bubbles" ...

We are getting very close to a worst case scenario-in my opinion. 

Again, not an expert, not objective, neutral etc...hope to be very, very wrong ...

Dutch Josh wrote: Wishfull thinking-so far the basis for inaction in this pandemic-was hoping for a mild virus...only giving a cold..In more species wishfull thinking would go for "developing away from humans" ...only question then is why should they virus react that way / Massive spread of this mutaing high-speed virus (Delta+ variants most likely do spread even better then the Alfa variant most the basis in this white tailed deer study) may call for "survival bubbles" ... We are getting very close to a worst case scenario-in my opinion. Again, not an expert, not objective, neutral etc...hope to be very, very wrong ...

For a lay person, you are very impressive, DJ!  

Indeed, by allowing this animal virus to spread throughout nature, we have increased its reservoir from only humans to many other mammals.  From this base, it can continue to evolve and mutate.  I doubt that we will ever be rid of it. 

Dutch Josh wrote: [url]https://www.wormsandgermsblog.com/[/url] or https://www.wormsandgermsblog.com/ has been promoting the "One Health" idea. Live as a system....Diseases in non human animals/forms of life can become a risk for us...Human diseases can spread via non-human hosts (like minks did with SARS-2/CoViD-19).  Animals always were a major reservoir for disease...we did make a choice to ignore it. When I see the statistics for SE Asia (Vietnam, Laos) I wonder if bats did allready start spreading (maybe via other animals) yet another form of CoViD ???? Also we should know more on how diseases spread from one species to another... Maybe a bit Science Fiction...could we "use" another species to "absorb" CoViD 19...try to push the worst part of the disease away from humans ? Would that have any use ? (A bit similar to technology taking care of CO2 to limit climate change...In my eyes/ears a bit "Enron-style"...spending profits to be made...) I think it would be wise to better monitor (at least that !) the spread of SARS-2 from white tailed deer into other wildlife...There will be spread ! But do foxes eating dead meat from deer catch the virus ? Get ill from it ? Spread the virus ? If so only among foxes ?  By monitoring (and lab-study, the safer option but with its limits) we may at least get an idea on how much risks there are with CoViD in wildlife... It may end up at bats...sort of viral recycling...

Good thinking!  We know that coronaviruses easily cross species....at the wet market in Wuhan, a variety of critters were thought to be the "bridge" species between bats and humans.  These included civet cats, pangolins and other stuff they like to eat. 

Don't forget MERS, which was found in camels in the Arabian peninsula and elsewhere.  It seems to have gone into hiding for some reason - will it come back? 

From what I've read, the problem is the ever-growing incursion of humanity into rural & jungle spaces, bringing humans into close contact with bats, monkeys and other disease reservoirs.  We are likely to see many more of these emergent virus outbreaks in coming years.  (academically, emerging viruses are a favorite topic of mine!)

There are some nasties out there - NIPAH virus, Lassa Fever, Marburg, Hantavirus etc.  What we don't know would fill entire libraries. 

Two things come to mind.  1. Can it develop into something carried by fleas ticks and mosquitos and 2.  All those hunters...

Worried about the deer but not all the cats and dogs huh. Better get your pets vaxxed LOL.