A white-tailed deer
(Picture: Pixabay)New York deer have tested positive for Omicron, marking the first time transmission of the variant has been reported in wild animals.
The discovery in white-tailed deer in Staten Island raises concerns that the animals could become a potential source of a new variant, according to experts.
Although researchers have previously reported earlier variants of the virus in deer in fifteen US states including New York, this is thought to be the first time Omicron has been detected in wild deer, reported the New York Times.
Scientists believe that the deer are only passing the disease onto other deer only, and not people, but fear that longer term the disease could mutate and ‘spill over’ into other species or into animal-to-human transmission.
“The circulation of the virus in deer provides opportunities for it to adapt and evolve,” Vivek Kapur, a veterinary microbiologist at Penn State University, who helped with the research, told the paper.
“And it’s likely to come back and haunt us in the future.”
The study, which has not yet been published in a journal, found that one deer with Omicron already had high levels of antibodies, hinting at previous infection.
Researchers collected blood samples from 131 captured deer between mid-December and the end of January and found nearly 15 per cent of them had antibodies.
PCR testing of 68 deer revealed that seven of the animals were actively infected, with at least four of those confirmed to be Omicron.
If the deer could be repeatedly infected with new variants, they could become a reservoir for new strains, said the team behind the research.
They speculated that people could be spreading Covid to the deer by hand-feeding them in the park, or more indirectly through wastewater.
The researchers now hope to conduct more research to determine which of the variants each of the deer were infected by and what level of protection they have from antibodies.
In 2020, in Denmark, officials killed the country’s entire population of farmed mink over fears of Covid transmission from animals to humans.
Earlier this year, Hong Kong ordered a mass hamster cull after a pet shop employee and several hamsters were found to have the disease.
