Ayooshi Mitra, Amity University, Kolkata
There is currently no evidence of widespread transmission of SARS CoV-2 among wild animals, but recently, a wild American mink in Utah has tested positive for the virus — the first wild animal found to be infected with the Coronavirus, according to the researchers. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers, the wild mink was infected with a coronavirus variant that was distinct from viruses taken from nearby farmed American mink.
This implies that the wild American mink had been infected by farmed animals. It was, however, not evident whether the animal was alive or dead at the time of the test. The mink was found by the researchers while conducting a survey for coronavirus infected wildlife in areas close to mink farms that had outbreaks from August to October. Hence it can be said that there is no evidence that the coronavirus is spreading among wild animals in the United States or elsewhere, with only one wild animal testing positive so far.
If the virus were to become extensive among wild or farmed minks, in those animals, it may continue to evolve. The virus could accumulate mutations that may not occur in humans in such a scenario, potentially allowing the virus to jump to other animal types and make them sick or pass on a new, possibly more virulent strain back to humans. There have been numerous coronavirus outbreaks on mink farms in the United States and Europe since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Millions of animals were killed in Denmark in early November after authorities raised concerns that coronavirus mutations in mink versions could make vaccines for COVID-19 less effective. This could be possible if the parts of the virus that are typically the target of protective, vaccine-induced antibodies, evolve in minks to escape recognition and then those viruses are transmitted to individuals. But there is no evidence that vaccines can be weakened by existing viral variants from minks.
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Reference:
- https://www.sciencenews.org/article/covid-19-coronavirus-mink-utah-first-wild-animal-test-positive
- T. DeLiberto and S. Shriner. Coronavirus disease 2019 update (536): Animal, USA (Utah), wild mink, first case. ProMED-mail, International Society for Infectious Diseases. Posted December 13, 2020.
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