New signs that the COVID-19 virus, SARS-CoV-2, is prevalent among Virginia wildlife.
The researchers discovered the virus in six common garden species and detected antibodies in five species, indicating past exposure.
Exposure rates ranged between 40% and 60% in the species.
The study, led by scientists at VTC’s Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, Virginia Tech’s College of Science, and the Fralin Life Sciences Institute, showed the presence of SARS-CoV-2 and virus 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.
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 tested 23 common Virginia species for active infections and antibodies that indicated past infections.
They discovered the virus in deer mice, Virginia opossums, raccoons, groundhogs, cottontail rabbits and eastern red bats. One possum 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.
Thus, the virus turns to animals, adapts and mutates to thrive in new hosts.
SARS-CoV-2 infections have already been identified, mainly in white-tailed deer and wild mink. This new study particularly increases the number of species tested and our understanding of virus transmission to and between Array.
The knowledge suggests that the virus has spread and that spaces with greater human activity may serve as hotspots for interspecies transmission.
“This study built on the important gap that exists in our knowledge about SARS-CoV-2 transmission in the broader wildlife community,” says Joseph Hoyt, an assistant professor at Virginia Tech. “Many studies have focused on white-tailed deer, while it is unknown what happens to much of the wildlife in our garden. »
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. Locations ranged from urban spaces to remote wild spaces to compare the presence of the virus in animals in sites with other degrees of human activity.
According to scientists, 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 emphasize 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 potentially 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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