1. SARS-CoV-2 Seropositivity in Urban Population of Wild Fallow Deer, Dublin, Ireland, 2020–2022
- Author
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Kevin Purves, Hannah Brown, Ruth Haverty, Andrew Ryan, Laura L. Griffin, Janet McCormack, Sophie O’Reilly, Patrick W. Mallon, Virginie Gautier, Joseph P. Cassidy, Aurelie Fabre, Michael J. Carr, Gabriel Gonzalez, Simone Ciuti, and Nicola F. Fletcher
- Subjects
SARS-CoV-2 ,COVID-19 ,coronavirus ,respiratory infections ,severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 ,SARS ,Medicine ,Infectious and parasitic diseases ,RC109-216 - 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.
- Published
- 2024
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