Researchers studying SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19 in humans) in white-tailed deer in Ontario, Canada, recently discovered the animals likely passed the infection on to a human.
The findings confirm suspicions that SARS-CoV-2 is being transmitted between animals and humans, and show that changing human behavior alone will not stop COVID-19 from spreading, say researchers. Spillback from animals to humans also increases the transmission of the virus and the chance of a new variant emerging.
“This study reinforces the need to further understand the possibility of spread in animal reservoirs and then back to humans,” says Jennifer Guthrie, a microbiology professor at Western University and one of the pre-print’s lead authors.
SARS-CoV-2 has been shown to infect non-human mammals, but evidence is mostly in farmed or domestic populations. Denmark, Netherlands and Spain culled millions of mink in 2020 to prevent them from producing a new coronavirus variant.
