Extremely mutated crown variant in white-tailed deer can infect humans – Joop

A variant of SARS-CoV-2 is circulating among white-tailed deer in North America that now differs significantly from the virus that people infect each other with. According to the researchers, there are no fewer than 76 mutations. They write it in Microbiology of Nature.

According to scientists, the virus can pass from white-tailed deer to humans. They came across a case from the fall of 2021 in which a person was infected with a very similar variant of the virus circulating among white-tailed deer. “In the week prior to infection, the person had been in close contact with deer,” the researchers write. “He had not had contact with people who tested positive for the coronavirus”.

The fear that sars-cov-2 will jump back from animals to humans is not new. Since the beginning of the corona pandemic, experts have pointed to animal reservoirs in which sars-cov-2 can develop further. There is a danger that the virus will make the transition from animal to human again and turn out to be mutated in such a way that the accumulated immunity will hardly protect us anymore.

So far, 54 non-human mammals have been identified as capable of becoming infected with the virus. In some cases, this can cause serious problems. Because minks have been found to be susceptible to the virus and subsequently infect mink farm employees, the Netherlands and Denmark, for example, have released millions of minks. kill prematurely.

There is also a theory that Omikron initially circulated among rodents before the contagious variety made its way back to humans. This is not certain, by the way. It’s also possible that Omikron originated in a person who was immunocompromised and therefore had the virus in members for months.