CLAM LAKE: Testing a black bear for COVID is much more than doing a quick check at your own home.
Prepare the control solution in a tube. Unpack a swab. Insert it into the nose and twist it for a few seconds; Repeat on the other side. Place the swab in the control solution tube and prepare it to be sent to a U. S. Department of Agriculture laboratory. U. S. in Colorado.
But of course, there’s a big difference: researchers have to get close enough to a wild carnivore to collect the swab and keep it calm during the not-so-pleasant sampling process.
But it’s a challenge researchers took on this winter in northern Wisconsin, to see if the virus possibly would have spread to the black bear population and to address the broader question of whether it can harbor the SARS-CoV-2 virus in a way that leads to new vaccine-evading mutations that can also be passed on to humans.
Since the human COVID outbreak in 2020, cases have also appeared in animals.
Some tigers and gorillas in zoos. Some domestic dogs and cats. And on mink farms, the virus spread like wildfire, forcing farmers to slaughter entire populations after the virus was shown to have spread to at least one employee.
But slowly, COVID cases have also appeared in wild animals. The white-tailed deer has spread the virus among their populations, as has the bura deer.
But scientists are still trying to figure out which species are delicate and why.
Then, in early March, a USDA biologist walked into the woods near Clam Lake with a team of researchers to locate bear dens and gather data on what was there. with a GPS collar if necessary.
And while researchers in the den were working, the USDA biologist could simply protect the bear to detect COVID and take a blood pattern to check for antibodies or evidence from beyond infection. Gently taken back to his lair, with his mother asleep.
“This study aims to help us better understand how COVID spreads within and across populations,” Jonathan Heale, a biologist, told USDA staff.
“Our biggest fear is that animals will serve as reservoirs for the virus. It can hide, mutate and reappear with a new variant. Therefore, the paintings on carnivores are a snapshot of what is there throughout the country.
Testing wild animals for COVID is a way for researchers to be more informed about how the disease spreads and mutates.
Can it spread smoothly among members of the population?And if so, are there mutations? And can those mutations be transmitted and maintained through humans?
The samples collected in early March will allow scientists to sense whether there is a threat that the virus will simply mutate and then spread to humans.
“It’s dynamic. We can expect mutations to emerge and many of them will not be transmitted or maintained in animal populations,” said Thomas Yuill, professor emeritus of pathobiological, forest and wildlife biology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“But there is a threat that one of them will appear, which can in fact spread very easily. And if it turns out that in the process of mutation its viral design is altered enough that vaccine use or past exposure would possibly not cover it. If suddenly, you may also have inflamed other people or animals more than once. “
As for the USDA study of carnivores, the firm sampled mink, raccoons, red foxes, coyotes and some small carnivores. They can also sample wolves in Alaska, Heale said.
The tests will be considered as an initial study, Heale said, just looking to see what exists and which species even have the biological ability to become infected with the virus that causes COVID.
“We are the waters,” he said. And if we see more COVID than we thought, we have the ability to take more samples. “
So far, black bear tests have not produced any positive tests or antibody findings in their blood, March sampling effects are not yet available.
The absence of COVID in bears could be due in part to a lack of interaction with humans, unlike deer seen in neighborhoods or backyards, Yuill said.
“Animals that tend to be far apart are unlikely to be transmitted in a population,” he said. “Because the virus can’t be discovered from one inflamed individual to another. “
In addition to wild animals, there have been cases of cats and dogs in Wisconsin getting sick.
So far, 28 states have had cases of SARS-CoV-2 in the wild, according to USDA data. Wisconsin is one of them, with a white-tailed deer positive for the virus and with antibodies in the southeastern component of the state.
Wisconsin gained effects for 143 deer, said Lindsey Long, a veterinarian with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
She said samples were being taken to track the virus in the population.
“Variants have been discovered in deer populations, and we have to know if this persists, if it continues to circulate. “Are we locating new variants?” said Long. Could deer serve as a reservoir for new introductions?
Long said they were also looking to find out how the virus was transmitted to deer in the first place.
“Research suggests introductions into the population,” he said. And what can we do, how can we launch mitigation strategies?”
The circular sampling moment is underway in Wisconsin, on deer captured through hunters, road deaths and deer that have been removed from spaces like airports. So far, more than 523 samples have been collected, Long said.
Other states are also interested in deer and species. And countries too.
In Canada, studies have found that white-tailed deer are likely SARS-CoV-2 from humans and are now spreading the disease among them. According to the Canadian government, there has been at least one case where transmission from a deer to a human has been suspected but isolated.
When it comes to preventing the spread or spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus from an animal, the same stay-at-home rules apply when in poor health or wearing a mask. Also, make sure you dispose of trash properly, Heale said. , and do not feed bears or deer.
Laura Schulte can be reached on leschulte@jrn. com and on Twitter in @SchulteLaura.
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