Will COVID mutate in animals and return to humans?

According to a recent report, a new subspecies of coronavirus found in the white-tailed deer in Canada was later discovered in people who lived nearby and came into contact with a deer population. study.. Researchers say deer may have infected humans with the virus.

According to Nükhet Varlik, an associate professor at Rutgers University-Newark, new evidence that COVID-19 is building a foothold in wildlife can have long-term adverse effects on humans.

“Even if we manage to vaccinate the entire population, the disease can come back to us from animals, which is actually what happened in some of the other historic pandemics.” Varlik says. “So, to be honest, I don’t think we can eradicate COVID in the long run.”

6 out of 10 Zoonotic diseases are zoonotic diseases. In other words, it goes back and forth between species, from animals to humans.
Examples of zoonotic viruses include influenza, West Nile virus, plague, rabies, and Lyme disease.

Outbreak of coronavirus Wuhan Market in China, The place where live animals were slaughtered at the scene. Also, although the virus is classified as a zoonotic disease, no animal depot for this disease was found.

New COVID-19 mutants that animals can return to humans can mutate into entirely new ones.

Cody Warren, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Colorado at Boulder, a virologist and immunologist, said: “Now that we have what we believe the human virus is evolving and trying to grow in an animal, that animal will follow its own evolutionary trajectory.”

Multiple COVID-19 variants, such as Delta and Omicron, have been found in humans, and scientists cannot rule out the possibility that some variants are of animal origin.

“Most of the attention and resources focus on” how to test humans. ” Suresh Kuchipudi, professor and chairman of Emerging Infectious Diseases at Pennsylvania State University, said: “But in this process, we aren’t actually looking at animals … so there aren’t many links to trace the origins of these viruses. Therefore, the world in which this evolution may have predominantly occurred. We may not have investigated some animal species in the world. There are many gaps in connecting the dots. “

Veterinary virologist Kuchipudi co-authored another study. Evidence of COVID-19 found At the White-tailed Deer on Staten Island in New York. Researchers tested animals between December 12, 2021 and January 31, 2022, and found COVID-19 antibody in 19 of the 131 samples sampled.

When the virus returns from humans to animals, the process is called spillback.

“And what I’m most concerned about is that it gives new opportunities for viruses to evolve in new, unique and innovative ways,” says Warren. “And the virus can evolve in a way, then return to humans and spread again as a new disease throughout the human population.”

Kuchipudi needs to begin monitoring high-risk animals based on frequent exposure to highly infectious and humans in order to prevent or at least minimize the transmission of animals to humans. Is emphasized.

“Then we can track what is happening in terms of viral evolution. But can we also identify the route by which this exposure took place? Is it due to wastewater or leftover food? Is it due to? “Kuchipudi says. “We know that deer are infected with the virus, but it’s not entirely clear how free-living deer, which are normally inaccessible to humans, are picking up the infection.”

According to Kuchipudi, there is currently no national or international collaborative and collaborative effort to address the COVID-19 problem in animals. But he expects it to change. The American rescue plan We will provide $ 300 million for monitoring and monitoring animals that are likely to be infected with COVID-19.

“I see a lot of momentum going on,” says Kuchipudi. “Many stakeholders are aware that this is a problem, and I think most federal and state agencies are very serious about investigating this.”