1. SARS-CoV-2 Seropositivity in Urban Population of Wild Fallow Deer, Dublin, Ireland, 2020-2022.
- Author
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Purves, Kevin, Brown, Hannah, Haverty, Ruth, Ryan, Andrew, Griffin, Laura L., McCormack, Janet, O'Reilly, Sophie, Mallon, Patrick W., Gautier, Virginie, Cassidy, Joseph P., Fabre, Aurelie, Carr, Michael J., Gonzalez, Gabriel, Ciuti, Simone, and Fletcher, Nicola F.
- Subjects
FALLOW deer ,HUMAN-animal relationships ,SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant ,SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant ,CITY dwellers - Abstract
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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
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