A mutated new coronavirus has been detected in 154 wild white-tailed deer, fearing to infect humans again?

"Everything starts with the bat at the end of 2019.
.
.
" Since the outbreak of the new crown, scientists have been exploring the source of the virus
.

In the end, the WHO determined that the most likely scenario is that it originated from bats and then infected humans through an intermediate host
.

 Therefore, in addition to the human epidemic, the infection of wild animals has also attracted the attention of scientists
.

 The most worrying scenario is that animals become "coronavirus reservoirs", not only becoming stubborn sources of outbreaks, but also potentially breeding new variants
.

"Once it enters the body of wild animals, there is basically no way to control it
.

" Marietjie Venter, a South African medical virologist, expressed great concern
.

 At the beginning of the Omicron outbreak, some researchers believed that the highly contagious variant had been in animals for a while before it spread among humans
.

"Omicron may be a 'reverse zoonotic disease'
.

Animal hosts can better explain why some of Omicron's mutations have rarely been seen in humans before
.

" This is also the Hong Kong outbreak In the beginning, 2,000 hamsters were culled for an important reason
.

 Workers cull hamsters during the outbreak in Hong Kong (Image: Nature) Outbreak in animals For two years, research groups around the world have experimentally infected animals of different species to see if they are susceptible and can be infected by humans
.

At present, it has been confirmed that humans can transmit the new coronavirus to a variety of mammals, such as cats, dogs, minks, primates, etc.
(but there is no evidence at this stage that cats and dogs will transmit the new coronavirus to humans)
.

 In early January 2021, researchers from the U.
S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) found that fawns in captivity can contract and transmit the new crown
.

The virus is shed in their nasal mucus and feces, infecting other fawns in adjacent enclosures
.

Within a week, antibodies to the new coronavirus were detected on the deer
.

 Scientists collect nucleic acid from deer (Source: Nature) For such a result, William Karesh, chairman of the Wildlife Working Group of the World Organization for Animal Health, expressed his surprise
.

"I didn't expect that the new coronavirus can infect deer
.

Other hoofed animals, such as cattle, sheep, goats, etc.
, have a certain resistance to infection
.

" Thomas DeLiberto, a new crown researcher in the USDA Wildlife Service Program, said that since the new crown The virus can infect young deer, indicating that wild deer herds may also be infected
.

 So DeLiberto and his colleagues investigated wild white-tailed deer
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They collected a total of 385 blood samples from white-tailed deer between January and March 2021, and found that about 40% of the samples contained antibodies to the new coronavirus
.

This shows that white-tailed deer have been exposed to the new coronavirus
.

 But how did they get infected with the new coronavirus? Is it through contact with humans, or has the virus spread among the deer? There are still many mysteries waiting to be solved
.

 Sequences of new crown variants among deer herds (Source: Nature) In fact, since the first year of the new crown pandemic, scientists have begun to collect deer nasal swabs and blood samples, but all collected before December 2020.
is negative
.

 However, between January and March 2021, 129 of Ohio's 360 wild animals tested positive for COVID-19
.

Virus genome sequencing showed that the new coronavirus variant was similar to the main strain circulating in the human community in the state at the time, but some virus gene sequence mutations that did not appear in humans confirmed that the virus had spread among deer herds
.

 Then, 24 of the 30 U.
S.
states reported deer that tested positive for the new crown
.

At the end of December 2021, researchers discovered a highly transmissible variant of Omicron in white-tailed deer in New York City
.

 While the infected deer have so far not been seriously ill, they could spread the virus to livestock or other more vulnerable wildlife, raising more concerns
.

 However, the large-scale epidemic of new crowns in deer herds is currently limited to North America
.

The likely reason is the high density of deer there and their frequent interactions with humans
.

"In the Americas, deer can basically walk sideways in people's backyards, but most animals in Africa are in wildlife reserves
.

" How exactly did white-tailed deer contract the new coronavirus? Scientists believe that they may be infected through a variety of channels
.

The virus can be transmitted to white-tailed deer through direct contact when people are directly stroking or feeding them with their hands
.

In addition, the polluted environment, the infiltration of human wastewater into animal water sources, and the spread of other intermediate hosts may all bring the new coronavirus to white-tailed deer
.

 At the same time, the white-tailed deer is a very social animal.
Once a deer is infected with the new coronavirus, it has the opportunity to spread widely among the deer herds
.

 Male deer can travel dozens of kilometers, roaming among doe herds or competing with other male deer; a doe may also travel 100 kilometers away to "visit family and friends" or run into other herds
.

"Deer may transmit the virus through nose-to-nose contact,
"
explains Linda Saif, a virologist at Ohio State University
.

 White-tailed deer, which are very close to humans (Source: nature) In addition, there is increasing evidence that the new coronavirus can evolve independently in deer for a long time
.

 Mubareka, from the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto, and her colleagues sequenced five novel coronavirus genomes from deer herds in Ontario, Canada
.

It was found that the virus from the deer herd had 76 mutations compared to the original strain circulating in Wuhan, China, including some mutations in the spike protein that enhanced the infectivity of the new coronavirus
.

 The closest variant the researchers could find to these genomes was a strain that had been infected by a person from Michigan a year ago, suggesting that the virus had been circulating in the deer herd for a long time
.

"This is crazy!" Mubareka expressed shock.
"I really don't know how the virus mutates throughout the process
.

" Even more surprising, Mubareka and her colleagues also found in humans in southwestern Ontario.
Gene sequence similar to the virus carried by deer
.

Although the evidence is scant, scientists suspect that the person contracted the infection from a deer
.

 Source: bioRxiv https://doi.
org/10.
1101/2022.
02.
22.
481551 Based on the above points, it is found that the new coronavirus can infect white-tailed deer in multiple ways, and spread and mutate more widely through contact between deer and deer.
It may even be reinfected in humans
.

 That has led scientists to worry that white-tailed deer could become a "reservoir" for the virus, a permanent home for the virus and a source of regular outbreaks that cause infections in other animals or humans
.

 Camels, for example, are a natural "reservoir" for the MERS-CoV coronavirus, which is occasionally transmitted to humans, causing Middle East Respiratory Syndrome
.

In the future, will white-tailed deer become a "repository" for the new coronavirus? Saif emphasized that once the "coronavirus reservoir" is successfully established in the white-tailed deer herd, the virus will continue to mutate, evolve, and even recombine with other coronaviruses, so as to infect other animals that share pastures with deer, such as sheep, goats, dairy cows Wait, maybe livestock
.

 Similar to humans, deer can also be superinfected
.

Between December 2021 and January this year, scientists found that a deer infected with Omicron also carried antibodies against Delta
.

If deer can be re-infected, it means that the new coronavirus can continue to circulate without receding, supporting the possibility of the existence of a "virus reservoir"
.

 However, there is currently insufficient evidence that deer herds are breeding grounds for dangerous varieties, and more cases of "spill from deer to humans" are needed
.

Bryan Richards, a wildlife biologist at the U.
S.
Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center, said of the millions of people who worked with deer last year, we now know only one person may have been infected, so it's not a threat at this time
.

 "It's still in its infancy, and we're planning more experimental infection studies
.

" Reference: [1] https://#ref-CR6[ 2] https://doi.
org/10.
1101/2022.
02.
22.
481551 ‍Written | Edited by Swagpp | Swagpp click "Read the original text" below to download the Mace Medical APP