XPost: sci.misc

COVID is evolving quickly in white-tailed deer, study finds

Mutated virus can jump from animals back to humans, researchers say

The COVID-19 virus is evolving in white-tailed deer at triple the rate
it evolves in humans-and future changes could have serious
consequences for people as well as livestock, according to a study
published Monday in the journal Nature Communications.

Researchers collected more than 1,500 nasal swabs from white-tailed
deer across Ohio between late 2021 and early 2022 to examine the COVID infection rate, spread and evolution of the virus. More than 10% of
the samples collected were positive for COVID, with most of the
sequenced deer viruses belonging to the delta variant that was widely circulating in humans at the time, according to the study led by
researchers at Ohio State University, National Institutes of Health
and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. But some of the
deer also had alpha variants that had been circulating in humans six
months earlier, the researchers found.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/covid-is-evolving-quickly-in-white-tailed-deer-study-finds-a7027d3b

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

XPost: sci.misc

On Tue, 29 Aug 2023 06:42:58 -0500
JAB <[email protected]d> wrote:

COVID is evolving quickly in white-tailed deer, study finds

Most of redneck America would very much like to be a part of the
solution to this growing problem, I'm quite sure. We/They were just
looking for a reason, and "they're eating my garden" wasn't good
enough. COVID reservoir? That is a decent reason. Just think of the children!!!

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

XPost: sci.misc

On 8/30/23 17:49, Retrograde wrote:

On Tue, 29 Aug 2023 06:42:58 -0500
JAB <[email protected]d> wrote:

COVID is evolving quickly in white-tailed deer, study finds

Most of redneck America would very much like to be a part of the
solution to this growing problem, I'm quite sure. We/They were just
looking for a reason, and "they're eating my garden" wasn't good
enough. COVID reservoir? That is a decent reason. Just think of the children!!!

I doubt it, most hunters I know don't want to kill off so many deer that
they upset the ecosystem, they just want to thin the numbers a bit.

--
~rdh

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

XPost: sci.misc

On Thu, 31 Aug 2023 09:40:33 -0500, rdh <[email protected]ute> wrote:

they just want to thin the numbers a bit

State of Iowa has done this in past years, and used the meat at state institutions.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

XPost: sci.misc

On Thu, 31 Aug 2023 09:40:33 -0500
rdh <[email protected]ute> wrote:

I doubt it, most hunters I know don't want to kill off so many deer that
they upset the ecosystem, they just want to thin the numbers a bit.

Fair point. That's true of the ones I know as well.

I was reading earlier that the White Tailed Deer is the only mammal that has increased in number over the last three centuries; every other mammal has decreased. The White Tail also makes a mess of forest underbrush that changes ecosystems permanently
for other species. I've got a patch of forest that's totally ravaged from 8 feet down. Impossible to grow anything to fill in the gaps, they eat it all while the shoots are tender.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)