It appears that the SARS-Cov-2 virus is spreading in the animal world too! More reservoirs for the virus to develop. I don't think this is a reason for major concern given the fact that Covid-19 is a fairly harmless disease compared to the plagues of the past. We have SARS-CoV-2 under control by now with multiple available vaccinations and medications!
This research suggests that "zooanthroponotic spillover events" occurred! From reading only the abstract it is not clear whether these animals also had any symptoms of being infected with the coronavirus. Could it be it was mostly asymptomatic like with perhaps as many as 60% or more of human infections?
"A new study that found SARS-CoV-2 spreading quickly through the white-tailed deer population in the middle of the US spells bad news for any hopes of eliminating the virus. ...
“If the virus has opportunities to find an alternate host besides humans, which we would call a reservoir, that will create a safe haven where the virus can continue to circulate even if the entire human population becomes immune,” ..."
“If the virus has opportunities to find an alternate host besides humans, which we would call a reservoir, that will create a safe haven where the virus can continue to circulate even if the entire human population becomes immune,” ..."
From the abstract:
"Many animal species are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 and could potentially act as reservoirs, yet transmission of the virus in non-human free-living animals has not been documented. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), the predominant cervid in North America, are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection, and experimentally infected fawns can transmit the virus. To test the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 may be circulating in deer, we tested 283 retropharyngeal lymph node (RPLN) samples collected from 151 free-living and 132 captive deer in Iowa from April 2020 through December of 2020 for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA. Ninety-four of the 283 deer (33.2%; 95% CI: 28, 38.9) samples were positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA as assessed by RT-PCR. Notably, between November 23, 2020 and January 10, 2021, 80 of 97 (82.5%; 95% CI 73.7, 88.8) RPLN samples had detectable SARS-CoV-2 RNA by RT-PCR. Whole genome sequencing of the 94 positive RPLN samples identified 12 SARS-CoV-2 lineages, with B.1.2 (n = 51; 54.5%), and B.1.311 (n = 19; 20%) accounting for ~75% of all samples. The geographic distribution and nesting of clusters of deer and human lineages strongly suggest multiple zooanthroponotic spillover events and deer-to-deer transmission. The discovery of sylvatic and enzootic SARS-CoV-2 transmission in deer has important implications for the ecology and long-term persistence, as well as the potential for spillover to other animals and spillback into humans. These findings highlight an urgent need for a robust and proactive “One Health” approach to obtaining a better understanding of the ecology and evolution of SARS-CoV-2."
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