Kanikah Mehndiratta, MSc, University of Glasgow
The spread of SARS-CoV-2 has been devastating to human health globally with a recent death count of about 4 million. A major concern amongst scientists has been the reverse zoonosis which could seriously aggravate the spread of the virus. This could also result in newer variants evolving in animal bodies that can then spread to humans again. Thus, a never-ending pandemic is the next big threat concerning the situation. Researchers at the National Wildlife Research Centre (NWRC) have conducted a sero-surveillance program on the white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). The study has been focused on checking for antibodies in deer serum samples against the exposure of SARS-CoV-2.
Reverse zoonosis:
COVID-19 has become one of the scariest diseases the century has witnessed. The associated SARS-CoV-2 strains can infect humans as well as many other species in the Animal kingdom. This adds to the possibility of emerging new reservoirs of the viral strains in animal bodies. Each such animal can drive the novel evolution of viral strains. The newer variants can further disseminate into other animals and through physical contact or via contaminated water, air, and food to humans. Wildlife species hold a genuine concern because they are large in numbers and live closely associated with humans.
This has emphasized the conducting of various wildlife surveillance programs for early detection of reverse zoonosis. Such pathogen pressure at the human-wildlife interface poses huge risks to the health of humans and wildlife. The re-emergence of newer strains with altered transmissibility, better pathogenicity, and vaccine escape are unavoidable concomitant risks.
Research methodology:
The affinity of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to the host’s cell receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) can be deduced via in-silico techniques. It is an indication of the high susceptibility of various animal species to SARS-CoV-2, especially the white-tailed deer. The species is particularly abundant in easter regions of the U.S. Experimental investigations of the viral strain in the deer species indicate sub-clinical infections, degraded virus in nasal and fecal samples, and spread via contact to a deer acting as a control.
About 624 deer serum samples were evaluated in a pre-pandemic and post-pandemic phase from 4 states in U.S, Pennsylvania, New York, Michigan, and Illinois. 239 of these samples collected from the U.S National Wildlife Disease Program (NWDP) were from archives between 2011-2020. A specie-independent, surrogate virus neutralization test (sVNT) was performed for high-throughput screening. It detected total neutralizing antibodies that are potentially interfering with an affinity of the viral protein to the ACE2 receptors. An even more specific virus neutralization test (VNT) was conducted parallelly at other laboratories for validation.
Substantial Findings:
Antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 were detected in about 40% of the post-pandemic samples in the surveillance program. They were also detected in 3 samples of the early-pandemic phase and one from 2019. The sVNT screening gave results exhibiting high concordance with VNT results. Positive samples in the post-pandemic phase had 80-100% inhibition values while the early and pre-pandemic ones had lower values. This could be an indication of non-specific binding of antibodies, waning immunity, or even cross-reactivity. A seroprevalence of about 7% was observed as the lowest value in Illinois. Cross-reactivity of antibodies against other strains of SARS-CoV-2 and the many routes of transmission is a relevant consideration from the whole study.
Also read: CT scan results of Covid patients a year after infection!
References:
- Chandler, J. C., Bevins, S. N., Ellis, J. W., Linder, T. J., Tell, R. M., Jenkins-Moore, M., Root, J. J., Lenoch, J. B., Robbe-Austerman, S., DeLiberto, T. J., Gidlewski, T., Torchetti, M. K., & Shriner, S. A. (2021). SARS-CoV-2 exposure in wild white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) [Preprint]. Microbiology. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.29.454326
- Mallapaty, S. (2021). The coronavirus is rife in common US deer. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02110-8
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Author info:
Kanikah Mehndiratta is an avid researcher in the field of Genetics with a background in Biotechnology. She is a postgraduate from the University of Glasgow in their Medical Genetics and Genomics program. Currently, based in Chandigarh as a scientific writer, she involves herself mainly in projects related to neurological disorders. Outside of academics, she likes to read novels, travel and is involved in volunteer work mostly.
LinkedIn profile- https://www.linkedin.com/in/kanikah-mehndiratta-301830171
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3.https://bioxone.in/news/worldnews/sexually-dimorphic-hydrocarbons-pheromones-in-cockroaches/
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