Publication date: Aug 01, 2024
SARS-CoV-2 can infect wildlife, and SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern might expand into novel animal reservoirs, potentially by reverse zoonosis. White-tailed deer and mule deer of North America are the only deer species in which SARS-CoV-2 has been documented, raising the question of whether other reservoir species exist. We report cases of SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity in a fallow deer population located in Dublin, Ireland. Sampled deer were seronegative in 2020 when the Alpha variant was circulating in humans, 1 deer was seropositive for the Delta variant in 2021, and 12/21 (57%) sampled deer were seropositive for the Omicron variant in 2022, suggesting host tropism expansion as new variants emerged in humans. Omicron BA. 1 was capable of infecting fallow deer lung type-2 pneumocytes and type-1-like pneumocytes or endothelial cells ex vivo. Ongoing surveillance to identify novel SARS-CoV-2 reservoirs is needed to prevent public health risks during human-animal interactions in periurban settings.
Semantics
| Type | Source | Name |
|---|---|---|
| disease | VO | population |
| disease | IDO | reverse zoonosis |
| disease | VO | report |
| disease | IDO | host |
| pathway | KEGG | Coronavirus disease |
| disease | MESH | COVID-19 |
| disease | MESH | respiratory infections |
| disease | VO | Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 |
| disease | VO | Viruses |
| disease | MESH | zoonoses |