Indeed, the new study confirms prior reports that some coronavirus variants, including Alpha and Gamma, continued to circulate in deer even after they became rare in people.
They found multiple versions of the virus in deer, including the Alpha, Gamma, Delta and Omicron variants.
Then, the scientists compared the viral samples isolated from deer with those from human patients and mapped the evolutionary relationships between them.
They concluded that the virus moved from humans to deer at least 109 times and that deer-to-deer transmission often followed.
Many questions remain, including precisely how people are passing the virus to deer, and the role that the animals might play in sustaining the virus in the wild.
Persons:
APHIS
Organizations:
Alpha, Gamma, Plant Health, Service, D.C, Nature Communications, APHIS, Centers for Disease Control, University of Missouri
Locations:
., Washington, North Carolina and Massachusetts