Coronavirus Deer: Corona virus now engulfing animals along with humans, found in deer in America

“One of the most important findings of this study was the detection of three worrisome forms – alpha, gamma and delta – circulating in wild animals,” said Diego Diele, associate professor at Cornell University. During the pandemic, deer became infected with SARS-CoV-2 through contact with humans, possibly through hunting, wildlife resettlement, feeding wild animals, or through wastewater or water sources.

change in the shape of the virus

Diel said that a virus that emerged in humans in Asia has now been found in wildlife in North America. The 5,700 samples used in the study were collected during 2020-22. When the researchers compared the genomic sequencing of a variant found in deer with sequencing of a similar variant taken from humans in New York, they found that the variant of the virus in deer had changed.

Virus was in deer for many months

According to the study, this indicates that the form of the virus was present in the deer for several months. The study noted that while the presence of alpha and gamma variants was known in deer, there was no evidence of these variants in humans. “When we compared the sequence of the virus found in white-tailed deer with the sequence of the virus found in humans, we found that the virus sequence has changed significantly,” Diel said. Some of the viruses found changed 80 times.