from the they're-bats-I-tell-you!-antlered-bats! dept.
Wild U.S. deer found with coronavirus antibodies:
White-tailed deer, a species found in every U.S. state except Alaska, appear to be contracting the coronavirus in the wild, according to the first study to search for evidence of an outbreak in wild deer.
Researchers with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) analyzed blood samples from more than 600 deer in Michigan, Illinois, New York, and Pennsylvania over the past decade, and they discovered that 40 percent of the 152 wild deer tested from January through March 2021 had antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Another three deer from January 2020 also had antibodies.
Their presence means that deer likely had encountered the virus and then fought it off. The animals didn't appear sick, so they probably had asymptomatic infections, the agency says. Roughly 30 million white-tailed deer live in the U.S.
"The risk of animals spreading SARS-CoV-2 to people is considered low," the USDA told National Geographic in a statement. Still, the results may suggest that "a secondary reservoir for SARS-CoV-2 has been established in wildlife in the U.S." says Jüergen Richt, a veterinarian and director of the Center on Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases at Kansas State University who was not involved in the USDA's work. If the virus is circulating in other species, it could continue to evolve, perhaps in ways that make it more severe or transmissible, undermining efforts to slow the pandemic.
Journal Reference:
Mitchell V. Palmer, Mathias Martins, Shollie Falkenberg, et al. Susceptibility of White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) to SARS-CoV-2 [open], (DOI: https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/JVI.00083-21)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 04 2021, @08:37PM (14 children)
Since deer generally don't get close to people, I'm guessing they got it from outdoor dogs?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 04 2021, @08:42PM
Deer are in my yard, trying to eat my trees and garden every night.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday August 04 2021, @08:43PM (9 children)
Have you not been in places where there are lots of deer? There can be so many that they are actually a menace. Sure, most of them will keep a good distance from people, but not all.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 04 2021, @08:49PM (4 children)
I'm the AC that posted it, and we have deer all over here. I can't get within 100 feet of them. There's no way I could sneeze on one, even if I tried.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday August 04 2021, @10:14PM (1 child)
A sneeze can travel up to 18ft or more. Sure, that's well under the 100ft you're saying, but they live, eat, breathe, etc. around humans. It was a matter of time, if they were able to get it. Not all diseases cross between human and animals.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Wednesday August 04 2021, @11:15PM
But when they do ... boy, you definitely pay for it [youtube.com] in unintended consequences.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 04 2021, @10:16PM
I go out riding my bike at night, or at least I used to, in a suburban area that is near a rural area.
There were so many deer. I'm not sure I could have actually touched one, but they got pretty close. I saw a coyote once in a while too.
It's impossible to know how these deer got the virus, of
course. I suppose it's possible that they could have gotten it from a domestic animal (more likely a cat rather than a dog since there are a lot more outdoor cats) but they rarely get covid at all. Plus, that would mean jumping between three different branches of the mammal family tree. It's probably more likely that the virus went back to a bat, and then from the bat to the deer.
If you want to consider the double species jump idea, though, maybe raccoons or mice or something else that lives primarily outside but also comes into contact with humans. Especially mice, since they're common, and not all that different from humans, and we have a tradition of giving diseases to each other (eg hantavirus).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 05 2021, @02:49AM
What I was afraid of when I used to live somewhere like that was a deer sneezing on my moving car's front bumper and hood, and all over the pavement.... Fortunately you can proactively manage the situation by turning them into delicious hamburgers before they sneeze all over your car.
(Score: 2) by crafoo on Thursday August 05 2021, @12:57AM (3 children)
white tail deer are vermin and hunting is not doing nearly enough to control these garden-destroying forest rats.
also, prion disease in deer is a hell of a thing. more evidence that the population is out of control.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Acabatag on Thursday August 05 2021, @01:36AM (1 child)
White tail deer are actually an invasive species in many locations. In northern Minnesota, they displaced caribou. They are popular with hunters so their introduction is supported. When hunters say their licence fees 'support wildlife' it often means supporting the introduction and promotion of invasive species like white tail deer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 05 2021, @05:49AM
Yehawww *rolls coal*
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday August 05 2021, @01:32PM
I think prion diseases are almost independent of population density. You have them confused with diseases the spread by infection rather than conatious. Prions are misfolded proteins, and can be environmentally fairly durable, but they don't actively spread.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 04 2021, @09:32PM
Mark my words, the Branch Covidians are coming for your pets next.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday August 04 2021, @10:25PM
It's from rednecks with no access to sheep.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday August 05 2021, @04:07AM
Likely so. Looks to me like there's cross-immunity with canine coronavirus, so dogs can catch covid but generally have no symptoms. And deer aren't shy about coming into human-populated areas at night. So... lots of opportunity.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 04 2021, @08:44PM (9 children)
STOP testing deer. Jeezus! Some people just go looking for trouble.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 04 2021, @08:53PM
START testing Possums! And Squirrel brains! And Sarah Jessica Huckabee Sanderling! We are not out of this pandemic, yet!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday August 04 2021, @09:02PM (4 children)
This isn't looking for trouble. This is being prudent.
In what way can this morsel of knowledge possibly hurt? Scare the deer hunters away?
Sad how many people just want to hide their heads in the sand.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Wednesday August 04 2021, @11:21PM
It was a typo -- *frenching* [urbandictionary.com] deer was what the poster intended. You're definitely looking for trouble if you're doing that during a pandemic.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday August 04 2021, @11:41PM
I'm pretty sure this was a joke, as in Prez 45's repeated declarations of "well, if we'd just test less we'd have less cases and be the BEST in the world!"
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 05 2021, @03:38AM (1 child)
I like the fact that they are showing natural immunity post infection, which humans also do, but the governments of the world have decided they want everyone to be part of their experiment with mRNA tech. I like my immune system to get it's targets through the normal means of infection, eyes nose mouth sort of thing instead of a synthetic concoction in the muscle/blood, each to their own though.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 05 2021, @05:54AM
Ah a connoisseur. How do you like your spine after a polio infection?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 04 2021, @09:03PM (1 child)
What next, mandatory vaccinations? This will not doe!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 04 2021, @10:38PM
A pandemic is no time to pass the buck! Vax your Venison!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 04 2021, @09:19PM
It wasn't easy because the deer kept complaining something about its "freedomz" or something.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 04 2021, @09:11PM (1 child)
Oh deer!
(Score: 2, Troll) by Tork on Thursday August 05 2021, @01:46AM
"Oh no, she has COVID!"
"Doe!!"
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 04 2021, @09:34PM (2 children)
-nomsg
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 04 2021, @10:09PM (1 child)
Yes, but "The risk of animals spreading SARS-CoV-2 to people is considered low," the USDA told National Geographic in a statement.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday August 04 2021, @10:35PM
Depends on how rare you like your venison, I guess.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by HammeredGlass on Wednesday August 04 2021, @10:31PM (7 children)
Here, have a PCR swab test up your nose.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Wednesday August 04 2021, @11:49PM (3 children)
The two do very different things.
The PCR test tells you whether you have virus in your system, which is usually the information you need. Antigen tests answer the same question, with lower but generally adequate sensitivity.
The antibody test tells you whether you had an infection before. It's good for statistics and population studies.
The only reason I can think of for an individual to want an antibody test is an immunosuppressed person checking whether their vaccination was effective. Since that one May paper in Nature we have an idea what antibody levels map to what level of protection.
So we're stuck with multiple animal reservoirs, so we can never be rid of it, but a man can dream:
https://xkcd.com/2448/ [xkcd.com]
(Score: 2) by HammeredGlass on Thursday August 05 2021, @01:03AM (2 children)
I want an antibody test to see if I have antibodies from a prior infection. That's a totally viable way to have immunity as well without paying Big Pharma.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 05 2021, @07:33AM
Aren't you paying Big Pharma for the test??
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 05 2021, @02:35PM
Big Pharma got paid already like a billion times over, and even if they managed to fuck up they've not any liability in the matter. We call it regulatory capture in the biz.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Thursday August 05 2021, @12:52AM (2 children)
It could be worse [webmd.com].
(Score: 2) by HammeredGlass on Thursday August 05 2021, @01:18AM (1 child)
I'd be willing to deal with that if it was an antibody test.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Thursday August 05 2021, @01:53AM
Don't commit to that until you see the size of the swab!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 04 2021, @10:36PM (4 children)
January 2020 was very early in the pandemic. And it was already in wild deer populations. That seems odd?
Oh wait
That's a lot of faith and media spin on a testing process that may not be telling us anything useful at all.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 05 2021, @01:04AM
OMG deer flu!!! The American Flu, King Kong Flu, Hewie Dewey Fluey.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday August 05 2021, @01:44PM
The early antibody tests *were* pretty bad. Especially the ones the US used. They not only had lots of cross-reactions, they had a very high error rate. They were only useful for population studies, but people kept using them on individual cases.
Given the date you cite I'd be fairly sure that you were seeing either cross-reactions, or the errors in a small sample. (OTOH, there's significant evidence that COVID-SARS-2 was in the US as early as October, it just was neither recognized nor spreading rapidly. Perhaps it needed to pick up a couple of more mutations. (The evidence is far from conclusive, and is based on gene fragments rather than on complete viruses...so other explanations are possible.))
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 05 2021, @05:47PM
Wow, so even when they do proper reporting you have something to bitch about? WTF mate?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 05 2021, @08:32PM