COLUMBUS, Ohio — A new study from the Ohio State University found at least three variants of the COVID-19 virus in wild deer in six places in Ohio.
For the study, scientists collected nasal swabs from 360 deer in northeast Ohio, used PCR testing to examine the results, and found the variants infecting wild deer matched the strains that had been prevalent in human patients in Ohio at the same time, WKYC reported. The study notes the samples were all collected before the delta variant was widespread, and the delta variant was not found in the deer.
Wild deer being infected “leads toward the idea that we might actually have established a new maintenance host outside humans,” said Andrew Bowman, the author of the paper told WJW-TV.
The study makes clear that researchers still do not know how the deer got infected, whether they are able to infect humans or other animal species, or whether the infections were transient or long-term.
An earlier study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture found deer in Illinois, Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania had also been exposed to COVID-19, but said there was no evidence of the deer spreading the disease to humans.
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