Startling Discovery Suggests 40% of Wild Deer in The US Have Had The Coronavirus

[Warpy]

The novel coronavirus appears to have somehow jumped from humans to wild deer in some parts of the United States.

In the northeast corner of the nation, a recent federal survey found neutralizing antibodies for SARS-CoV-2 in 40 percent of all white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) that were sampled.

In the state of Michigan alone, 67 percent of free-ranging deer showed immune markers for the coronavirus in their bloodwork

https://www.sciencealert.com/more-than-a-third-of-wild-deer-in-the-us-have-been-exposed-to-the-novel-coronavirus

Anyone who thinks he can wait this out is sadly mistaken. There are now many animal reservoirs of this disease.

[patphil]

1. The number of deer in the woods behind our house has gone down dramatically over last 2 yrs.

[NNadir]

2. It seems not to be pathogenic in deer.

We have growing herds in New Jersey, after the Covid related declining population of their chief predator, the automobile, during lock downs.

Usually two are three are in my yard on any given time destroying trees and shrubs, and they all look healthy as they eat well, both on wild and landscaping plants.

I'm for reestablishing wolves and pumas in New Jersey but that's unrelated to Covid.

I'm not sure they fully qualify as a vector.

[Warpy]

3. I'm the wrong person to say that to.

I've had Lyme disease. Deer were the reservoir, ticks were the vector.

I said reservoir, not vector.

[NNadir]

5. I've had Lyme disease three times.

Happily for me, each time I had the classic rash, and was able to get the appropriate antibiotic. On one occasion my doctor initially diagnosed me as having a flu, but cheerfully corrected himself when the rash showed up.

I apologize for confusing the mathematical definition of "vector" which includes a point of origin, with the biological meaning. You are, of course, correct.

However the real reservoir, or at least an alternate reservoir, seems to be mice. It may be the case that all mammals can be affected. I have a cat, an indoor cat who has shown up nonetheless with ticks, probably because she's unemployed having retired from the mouse killing business and gone into the furniture trashing business.

I recalled writing something about Lyme disease somewhere, and I found it over at Daily Kos, where I used to write before being banned for telling the truth: Evolution and Lyme: Some Nihilist Remarks on a Disease, Part I. There are probably other parts; I can't recall.

My joints are killing me lately, and I can't tell if it's an undiscovered outbreak of Lyme, or simply a function of being old and fat, maybe a little of each.

It's hard to tell. I have antibodies to Lyme to be sure, so a test would be superfluous.

[Warpy]

6. I do take heart that there has been no transmission from dogs or cats to people

Our four legged companions have gotten it from us.

Coronavirus is on the move. It's only a matter of time before the reservoir attracts a vector.

We still don't know what intervened between bats, pangolins...and then us.

Lyme, by the way, is a very old disease. Oetzi/"the Ice Man was found to have had it at the time of his death, roughly 5500 years ago.

He was 50 and wiry and used cannabis and possibly a form of acupuncture for the pain.