Millions of rats living in New York carry the coronavirus. Rodents tested positive for several of its variants, according to a study published in the journal mBio of the American Society for Microbiology, and relayed by Health MagazineWednesday, March 15, 2023.
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According to the researchers, some eight million wild rats live in New York. In the fall of 2021, a team from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service studied wild Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) that live in municipal sewer systems. A period when “the Delta variant was predominant in humans”say the scientists in their study.
16.5% of rats infected with Covid
79 rats were analyzed to establish a serological study and sequencing of their genome. Conclusion: thirteen specimens were carriers of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, i.e. 16.5% of them. According to the researchers, two previous studies suggested that rats from Asia (Hong Kong) and Europe (Belgium) could have contracted the virus, without it being known to which variants they had been exposed.
Covid-19: “The need for further monitoring”
Now, it has been established that rats can be infected with Alpha, Delta and Omicron variants. The question therefore arises as to whether the virus is capable of mutating in their organism to end up with new variants which could infect humans.
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“Our results highlight the need for further surveillance of Sars-CoV-2 in rat populations for possible secondary zoonotic transmission to humans”, said Professor Henry Wan, director of the Center for influenza and emerging infectious diseases at the University of Missouri and lead author of the study. It is crucial to “determine whether the virus circulates in animals and evolves into new strains that could pose a risk to humans”he added.
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