Animals like deer can serve as reservoirs for the virus that causes COVID-19, potentially harboring new mutations and variants
COVID-19 has been found before in deer. In 2020 and 2021, theearlier versions of the virus in 481 deer sampled in 15 states. But the Omicron variant is causing greater worry than those earlier strains simply because of its extreme transmissibility and the close quarters in which humans and deer often live.
“As we continue to find these spillovers in animals, such as deer, the complexity of the virus evolution and the transmission networks becomes much more complicated,” says Suresh Kuchipudi, a Penn State veterinary virologist and a co-author of the study. “The potential does exist that the virus could circulate among the deer and they could become a major reservoir.”
If deer are carrying the virus, there’s no reason to assume other animals aren’t as well. While it’s not practical—or even possible—to test every species of animal that comes within infectious distance of humans, certain animals are of particular interest to investigators. Kuchipudi is concerned about deer mice, skunks, and feral cats, which previous laboratory studies have shown are easily infected with COVID-19. Other species of rodents are also causing worry.
The biggest concern for now, the Penn State authors argue, is not so much whether deer will be one more meaningful vector in the spread of Omicron to humans. We’re doing a perfectly fine job of spreading it among ourselves already. Rather, the deer could become a petri dish for viral mutation and the emergence of still more variants, which could, theoretically, jump species and infect humans.