New study has warned New York City rats could carry variants of COVID-19

In addition to humans, a wide range of wild, domestic and captive animals have been documented to have been exposed to SARS-CoV-2, including deer, mink, otters, ferrets, hamsters, gorillas, cats, dogs, lions and tigers. It has even been shown that the virus COVID-19 detected in farmed mink has caused infections directly in humanswhich highlights this animal as a potential reservoir of secondary zoonotic infections.

SARS-CoV-2 has evolved rapidly and many genetic variants have been identified, including several variants of concern. It’s that Alpha, Beta and Gamma acquired substitutions in the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the spike protein that would facilitate infectivity in mice and/or rats compared to the original pandemic strain, raising concerns about the potential risk of zoonotic transmissions inverses of emerging variants of rodent species, including those of wild mice and rats.

The bone Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)for its English acronym) say animal-to-human transmission is rare, but the lead researcher of a new study has called for closer examination of the viruses in rats to detect new strains.

According to this document, rats in New York can carry COVID-19. Recent research just published in mBio, an open-access journal from the American Society for Microbiology, concluded that these New York rodents, with a population of around 8 million animals, are susceptible to at least three variants of COVID. However, the CDC maintains its position that animal-to-human transmission of COVID-19 is rare, noting that in most cases animals are infected by humans.

There is “no evidence that animals play a significant role in the broadcast of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, to people,” the CDC said on its website.

But the study’s lead researcher, Henry Wan, warned that the new findings underscore the need for a further examination of the risk “in rat populations to determine if the virus is circulating in animals and evolving into new strains that could pose a risk to humans.”

Wan, director of the Center for Influenza and Emerging Infectious Diseases at the University of Missouri, said the current study “was one of the first to show how variants of COVID-19 can cause infections in rat populations. wild over a wide area”. UNITED STATES.

Additionally, studies of rats in Hong Kong and Belgium found they were exposed to the virus that causes COVID-19, although the variant is unclear. Meanwhile, in the New York study, researchers performed virological analyzes and genomic sequencing on samples from 79 wheels.

To further their research, they trapped rats primarily in Brooklyn parks and with permission from the New York City Parks Department, specifically “in and around locations surrounding sewer systems.”

Among the rats studied, 13 gave COVID-19 positive. The researchers then performed an in-depth analysis of the virus and determined that the Alpha, Delta and Omicron variants caused infections in the species of rats called Sprague–Dawley.

“Overall, our work in this space shows that animals can play a role in pandemics that affect humans, and it’s important that we continue to increase our understanding so that we can protect human and animal health“, wrote the authors of the study in their article.

The expansion of SARS-CoV-2 host tropism raises concerns about the potential risk of reverse zoonotic transmission of emerging variants in rodent species, including wild rat species. “In this study, we present evidence genetic and serological evidence of exposure to SARS-CoV-2 in the New York City wild rat population, and these viruses may be related to those circulating during the early stages of the pandemic. We also show that rats are susceptible to additional variants (i.e. Alpha, Delta, and Omicron) that have been predominant in humans and that susceptibility to infection varies by variant,” concluded Wan.

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