At least 3 new coronavirus variants have been detected in the U.S. deer herd

White-tailed deer may become a new crown virus library

Science and Technology Daily, Beijing, December 28 (Reporter Zhang Mengran) According to a recent study published in the British journal Nature, scientists have detected at least three variants of the new coronavirus in white-tailed deer in several locations in northeastern Ohio, the United States

Previous studies led by the United States Department of Agriculture showed evidence of antibodies in wild deer

Based on the genome sequencing of samples collected between January and March 2021, the researchers determined that the mutant strain that infected wild deer matched the strain that was circulating in Ohio's new crown patients at that time

Andrew Bowman, associate professor of veterinary preventive medicine at Ohio State University and senior author of the paper, said that the fact that wild deer may be infected “causes that we may actually have established a new maintenance host outside of humans.

The research team collected 360 white-tailed deer nasal swabs at 9 locations in northeastern Ohio

Analysis shows that the B.

Each site was sampled 1-3 times, for a total of 18 sample collection dates

Bowman said that the white-tailed deer as a new crown virus library may lead to two results: the virus may mutate in the deer, thereby promoting the spread of new strains to other species (including humans); or the virus can infect deer without occurring Mutations, while continuing to evolve in humans, and at some point when humans have no immunity to strains that infect deer, these variants may spread back to humans

However, how the virus initially spread among these deer and how it spread across species are all unresolved issues related to new discoveries