NY deer, including LI herds, to be tested for COVID-19, USDA says

Simply tossing a half-eaten apple out of a car window might spread COVID-19 to white-tailed deer on Long Island, scientists say.

Those deer may then become a virus reservoir, allowing the coronavirus to spring forth again, possibly after mutating into new variants that could be at best perplexing or at worst, more deadly, according to experts.

So starting in January, New York deer, including Long Island herds, will be tested by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, beginning with those killed by private hunters, and then expanding in February and March to deer slain by the department’s hunters, spokeswoman Gail Keirn stated in an email.

"We hope to sample approximately 500 deer in New York state," she added.

This is the second round of tests conducted by the department on the deer population. The first round showed that 33% of 481 samples taken from white-tailed deer between January 2020 and March 2021 revealed SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, the department said in July. The research was done because deer are so plentiful and "often come into close contact with people."

Deer in 32 counties were tested, including New York’s Onondaga, just south of Lake Ontario and about 250 miles northwest of Times Square; the other sites were in Illinois, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Risk is higher in places like Long Island

State and federal agencies echoed the statements of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which says the risk of people catching the coronavirus from animals, including deer, is low.

Still, experts offer at least a few cautions for Long Islanders — and not just for hunters. After all, deer on Long Island, along with other downstate areas, live much closer to people than more remote areas upstate.

"The risk is higher for sure," said Dr. Samantha Gibbs, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service veterinarian, "and you have to remember it goes both ways, by feeding animals and coming into close contact with them, humans are creating risk for deer, too."

New York State bars "all intentional feeding of wild deer or moose," with few exceptions. But that mandate has been flouted for years in some Long Island communities, perhaps most notably on Fire Island, where deer even became accustomed to bagels, for example.

Researchers have yet to discover precisely how COVID-19 has infected a variety of species, or how it spreads between people and animals — or if intermediary animals are involved.

With white-tailed deer at least, the hypothesis is that people are the source. "That’s how it would most likely have gotten into deer, via humans," Gibbs said.

Dr. Ann Hohenhaus, an Animal Medical Center veterinarian in Manhattan, said that while dogs appear less susceptible than cats, keeping dogs leashed — and cats indoors — makes sense because an ailing deer may not be able to avoid either species.

Hunters, naturally, are on the front line. The DEC says they should use these standard precautions:

• Spurn sick or dead deer
• Wear gloves and face masks when butchering
• Sanitize all gear afterward
• Properly discard remains in the trash or a public landfill

And health officials almost uniformly urge vaccines as the most powerful safeguard.

How are deer getting infected?

One complicating factor for researchers is that the deer herds that previously tested positive lived in four states, hundreds and thousands of miles apart.

"I don’t think anyone knows how that happened; that is the $100,000 question: How are deer getting infected?" said Hohenhaus.

Suresh Kuchipudi, professor and associate director of the Animal Diagnostic Laboratory at Penn State University, said, "One could hypothesize various ways this could happen; there doesn’t necessarily have to be direct interaction between deer and humans."

A team he helped lead found 94 of 151 wild deer and 132 captive deer tested positive in Iowa from April 2020 through December 2020.

The tests revealed that people likely had infected the deer. "We have genetic evidence to suggest the source of the virus for the deer was what was circulating in people."

In addition to a discarded apple, he explained deer might become infected from someone feeding them or just leaving trash outside.

"The deer might be licking what’s on the ground, and in that process get infected," he said. Then, the virus may spread to other members of the herd, and so on.

Kuchipudi said the deer found to be infected with COVID-19 were asymptomatic or had mild cases.

"The animals did not show any notable clinical symptoms," he said, though there was "evidence of mild lesions in the respiratory tract after post-mortems."

Other animals COVID-19 can infect

The CDC’s list of animals COVID-19 can infect, in addition to deer, includes cats, dogs, bank voles, ferrets, fruit bats, hamsters, pigs, rabbits, raccoon dogs and tree shrews.

Primates, hippos, lions and tigers also have gotten infected. U.S. and Danish mink farms also have had outbreaks, likely spread by infected workers, scientists say. In 2021, 17 million minks were slaughtered in Denmark, where such farms are on hold until 2023.

So far, chickens and ducks "do not seem to become infected or spread the infection," the CDC says.

Yet the coronavirus can sustain itself in even more creatures — including ocean dwellers.

According to a 2020 study, the 28 species with a "high propensity" for the coronavirus to infiltrate their cells included a dozen whales and dolphins, seven rodents, three deer, three lemuriform primates, two types of anteaters and an Angolan monkey.

"Water and wastewater were hypothesized to be a possible means of transmission for marine mammals," said one author, Joana Damas, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of California Davis Genome Center, by email. "However, the SARS-CoV-2 detected in wastewater was already inactivated and so not capable of infection."

Understanding the role wildlife plays

The threat of wildlife harboring dangerous diseases is nothing new.

Rabies dates back to at least 2300 B.C., when residents of ancient Babylon were fined if their rabid dog bit someone who died, historians say. More recent examples include Lyme disease, which people can get from deer ticks infected by mice. Though deer appear immune, they can be a tick's last meal before it lays eggs. The West Nile virus spreads to people bitten by mosquitoes first infected by birds.

Still, experts say it's important to track how COVID-19 infects, spreads and even mutates in animals.

Kuchipudi concluded: "Unless we look at what is happening with the virus spillover to animals and how the virus is evolving, we might be completely surprised when a completely new variant emerges from wildlife."