Researchers are enduring cold, snow and potentially dangerous animals to collect data on SAR CoV-2 spreading in wild animals. Working on an Indian reservation near the Canadian border, they test deer, moose, bears and wolves for the virus in the same way humans are tested, with nose swabs. That procedure required they get up close to the animals, for example crawling into a hibernating bear den head first. The scientist is held by the feet in case a quick exit is required. The sleeping bear is administered a drug just in case it wakes up while a sample is taken. [photo credit: AP]
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| swabbing a bear |
Scientists are concerned that the virus may establish an animal reservoir where it can mutate into variants resistant to current vaccines. The pandemic has brought home the hard lesson that human and wildlife health is connected. Most experts think that the virus that causes COVID-19 spread from bats to animals at a meat market in Wuhan where they are handled and consumed by humans. The virus has now been confirmed in to exist in wildlife in twenty-four US states. An early study in Canada showed that a person contracted a highly mutated strain from a deer in Ontario. The potential spread of mutated viruses spreading from wildlife to humans will increase as Spring progresses and animals begin to move around more.
The research is meant to forewarn public health authorities and the public. Coronaviruses take over host cells by 'unlocking' protective cell membranes with their protein spike 'key'. Living in animals allow the pathogen time to mutate its protein spikes to fit different species cells. Eventually, the virus hits on a mutation that works in humans, allowing it to re-infect a population. Omicron is an example of this process in action. A virologist told AP that unknown coronaviruses were found in New York City sewage, likely coming from rodents. Abundant white-tailed deer are a possible animal reservoir. A third of deer tested in an Iowa study between September and January 2021 were infected. Other researchers found COVID-19 antibodies in deer in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois and New York. Infected deer generally have no symptoms.Encroaching on animals' habitat is a large contributor to this potential deadly problem and will likely increase in the future as wild habitat continues to shrink around the globe. Another connection to Nature modern man ignores at his peril.