01/15/2023
" “More transmission across more species is not something we want to see.” The ability of Covid to infect wildlife amounts to a hidden panzootic—the animal version of an epidemic—with almost entirely unknown effects... One reason animal infections matter is because they represent new reservoirs for the virus, where it can be sustained and acquire new mutations that could theoretically help it spread better if it finds its way back to humans.
We already know that the virus can infect and spread within wild mink and white-tailed deer—and for both species, there is at least one verified instance in which the virus has gone from humans to the animals and back again to humans.
White-tailed deer are being exposed, and it is happening often. One study suggested that more than one-third of deer in the U.S. had been exposed. Another paper found that the virus had entered into deer at least four separate times from humans. A third study found the virus passed back into a single human in Canada.
So far, the virus has been detected in more than a hundred domestic cats and dogs, as well as captive tigers, lions, gorillas, snow leopards, otters, and spotted hyenas, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Zoo staff in the U.S. have recorded a single positive case in a binturong, coati, cougar, domestic ferret, fishing cat, lynx, mandrill, and squirrel monkey.
In the U.S., three wild species—mink, mule deer, and white-tailed deer—have tested positive. Cases have been detected elsewhere in the world in wild black-tailed marmosets, big hairy armadillos, and a leopard. "
From lions and tigers to big hairy armadillos, a growing number of animals have been infected with the coronavirus. Here’s what we’ve learned.
