New signs that the COVID-19 virus, SARS-CoV-2, is widespread among Virginia wildlife.
The researchers discovered the virus in six common garden species and detected antibodies in five species, indicating past exposure.
Exposure rates vary from 40% to 60% depending on the species.
The study, conducted by scientists at VTC’s Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, Virginia Tech College of Science, and the Fralin Life Sciences Institute, showed the presence of SARS-CoV-2 and viral mutations in wildlife.
These mutations were consistent with variants circulating in humans, suggesting human-to-human transmission.
Animals near trails and high-traffic public spaces were the most exposed, indicating that the virus is most likely transmitted from humans to wildlife.
The researchers emphasize that they have found no evidence of transmission of the virus from animals to humans. Therefore, people are not afraid of general interactions with wildlife.
The researchers analyzed 23 common Virginia species for active infections and antibodies that indicated past infections.
They discovered the virus in deer mice, Virginia opossums, raccoons, groundhogs, white-tailed rabbits, and eastern red bats. One opossum even showed unreported viral mutations in the past, which could potentially have an effect on humans and their immune response.
“The virus can jump from humans to wild animals when we are in contact with them, like a hitchhiker changing its routes to a new host,” says Carla Finkielstein, a professor at the VTC’s Fralin Institute for Biomedical Research.
“The virus aims to infect more humans, but it vaccinates many humans.
The virus then turns to animals, adapting and mutating to thrive in the new hosts.
SARS-CoV-2 infections have already been identified, primarily in white-tailed deer and wild mink. This new study particularly increases the number of species analyzed and our understanding of virus transmission within and between species.
The knowledge suggests that the virus has spread and that spaces with greater human activity may serve as hotspots for interspecies transmission.
“This study is due to the significant lack of knowledge about SARS-CoV-2 transmission in a broader wildlife community,” says Joseph Hoyt, an assistant professor at Virginia Tech. “Many studies have focused on white-tailed deer, while what happens to much of the wildlife in our garden remains unknown. “
The study team collected 798 nasal and oral swabs from live animals trapped and released or treated at wildlife rehabilitation centers.
They also received 126 blood samples from six species. The locations ranged from urban spaces to remote wilderness spaces to compare the presence of the virus in animals at sites with other degrees of human activity.
Scientists believe that human-to-human transmission can occur through trash cans and discarded food. The study found two mice at the same site with the exact same variant, indicating that they passed it from the same human or that one inflamed the other.
The researchers stress the importance of continued monitoring of those mutations and more studies on how the virus is transmitted from humans to wildlife, how it spreads within a species, and in all likelihood, between other species.
It highlights the possible wide diversity of SARS-CoV-2 hosts in nature and its possible extension. The study appears in Nature Communications and is supported by a grant from the U. S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. U. S.
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