Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 119, Issue 6, Pages -Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2121644119
Keywords
SARS-CoV-2; deer; spillover; One Health; animal reservoir
Categories
Funding
- Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences
- USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Award [2020-67015-32175]
- US Fish and Wildlife Service Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program [FY20 F19AF00434, FY22 F21AF01914, FY21 F20AF00309]
- Iowa DNR Fish and Game Protection Fund
- Houston Methodist Academic Institute Infectious Diseases Fund
- National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH, Department of Health and Human Services [75N93019C00076]
- NSF Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases program [1619072]
- Division Of Environmental Biology
- Direct For Biological Sciences [1619072] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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White-tailed deer, particularly in Iowa, have been found to be susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection and show evidence of human-to-deer transmission. This discovery highlights the need for a One Health approach to better understand the ecology, molecular evolution, and dissemination of the virus.
Many animal species are susceptible to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 ( SARS-CoV-2) infection and could act as reservoirs; however, transmission in free-living animals has not been documented. White-tailed deer, the predominant cervid in North America, are susceptible to SARS-CoV- 2 infection, and experimentally infected fawns can transmit the virus. To test the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 is circulating in deer, 283 retropharyngeal lymph node (RPLN) samples collected from 151 freeliving and 132 captive deer in Iowa from April 2020 through January of 2021 were assayed for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA. Ninety-four of the 283 (33.2%) deer samples were positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA as assessed by RT-PCR. Notably, following the November 2020 peak of human cases in Iowa, and coinciding with the onset of winter and the peak deer hunting season, SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in 80 of 97 (82.5%) RPLN samples collected over a 7-wk period. Whole genome sequencing of all 94 positive RPLN samples identified 12 SARS-CoV-2 lineages, with B.1.2 (n = 51; 54.5%) and B.1.311 (n = 19; 20%) accounting for similar to 75% of all samples. The geographic distribution and nesting of clusters of deer and human lineages strongly suggest multiple human-to-deer transmission events followed by subsequent deer-to-deer spread. These discoveries have important implications for the long-term persistence of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Our findings highlight an urgent need for a robust and proactive One Health approach to obtain enhanced understanding of the ecology, molecular evolution, and dissemination of SARS-CoV-2.
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