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It started in nature. A coronavirus that originated in bats has wound up in humans, causing the Covid-19 pandemic.
And it can go back to nature.
The SARS-CoV-2 virus can jump again, from humans, back into animals, back into wildlife, where it can wait, mutate, and change. Perhaps, years from now, it can infect people again.
“If we’re careful — and we’re lucky — there won’t be a wildlife population that becomes infected and becomes an established reservoir that can also infect people,” Sarah Olson, associate director of the health program at the Wildlife Conservation Society, says. “If it does, then we’ve got a long-term issue here, where this virus has the potential to be with us for millennia. And millennia is a long time. The risk may be small, but the consequences are huge.”
Our luck may soon be tested. On December 13, the US Department of Agriculture reported that a wild mink in Utah tested positive for the coronavirus.
“To our knowledge, this is the first free-ranging, native wild animal confirmed with SARS-CoV-2,” the National Veterinary Services Laboratories reported. A genetic analysis of the virus suggested the wild mink picked it up from a nearby mink farm, perhaps via wastewater runoff from the farm.
www.vox.com
And it can go back to nature.
The SARS-CoV-2 virus can jump again, from humans, back into animals, back into wildlife, where it can wait, mutate, and change. Perhaps, years from now, it can infect people again.
“If we’re careful — and we’re lucky — there won’t be a wildlife population that becomes infected and becomes an established reservoir that can also infect people,” Sarah Olson, associate director of the health program at the Wildlife Conservation Society, says. “If it does, then we’ve got a long-term issue here, where this virus has the potential to be with us for millennia. And millennia is a long time. The risk may be small, but the consequences are huge.”
Our luck may soon be tested. On December 13, the US Department of Agriculture reported that a wild mink in Utah tested positive for the coronavirus.
“To our knowledge, this is the first free-ranging, native wild animal confirmed with SARS-CoV-2,” the National Veterinary Services Laboratories reported. A genetic analysis of the virus suggested the wild mink picked it up from a nearby mink farm, perhaps via wastewater runoff from the farm.
A wild mink in Utah has Covid-19. Veterinarians fear this is just the beginning.
Which animals can catch Covid-19, which can’t — and why it matters.
www.vox.com
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