We are finally getting to the stage where people are taking a real look at potential reservoir animals, finally because clearly human to human airborne transmission is currently the real issue. But it is increasingly obvious that a whole lot of domestic and wild animals can get COVID-19 with varying degrees of actual illness and varying degrees of viral shedding while infected. Currently we know with certainty only that two closely related types of animal, minks and ferrets, have been demonstrated to be able to reinfect humans, but many other species are starting ti be looked at.


https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1....454326v1.full

https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/27/9/21-0774_article


While it is unlikely that animal to human transmission will ever constitute a major mode of human infection, the multitude of animal species susceptible to COVID-19, including domestic cats and dogs, suggests that this could remain a fertile ground for the development of new coronavirus variants.

"Fertile" is a very big stretch. To get lots of mutation opportunities you need VERY large numbers of infections...

That would be a real threat *if* it got established in very, very large livestock populations which were *also* impractical to manage or cull... that's the Asian pigs and chickens which serve as the flu reservoir/mutation laboratory.

Rare exotics are a non-issue and things like cattle can and will be easily culled and managed if it were to happen. Just like we do with anthrax, BSE, foot-and-mouth, etc.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202108/1230682.shtml


https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00531-z

You are certainly entitled to your opinion, but the opinions of other responsible people differs. It would be irresponsible to not even look.

I didn't say they shouldn't look into it... professional scientists and academics need their grant money and covid is obviously a hot button that makes .gov funds flow freely.

I just said there's no sign that it's getting into the kind of livestock populations where it might be uncontrollable.

Deer are not a significant vector to humans for anything (CJD is a very small but real risk for those who hunt and comsume wild venison) and are not in close contact with the vast majority of humanity. If it becames a problem, they would simply stop recreational hunting of affected populations (population control could still be performed by professional hunters who would dispose of carcasses appropriately).

Mink, ferrets, deer, saber tooth tigers none of that is going to vector much to humans once we know there's a threat and take obvious mitigation actions.

Pigs and chickens, I'd worry about that but IIRC pigs at least have already been shown to not support covid very well.


I thought the tinfoil flavor of the week was GoF from bioweapons labs? Why do we need to worry about nature anyway?

https://theconversation.com/covid-wh...in-pets-165488

an excerpt:

It definitely is a risk, since coronaviruses have high fidelity exoribonuclease proof reading, random mutation is eliminated, while recombination drives the evolution of the virus. Any type of new reservoir gives Covid chances to evolve. However, interactions with sub-optimal antibodies will still be the main driver of immune escape in humans.

Even improbable things do happen. Just ask a dinosaur…

Oh, wait…

Domestic bats would be a very difficult animal population to cull, should they become reservoirs. They are WAY too important to agriculture.

And while 1 in 1000 isn’t a lot, how many spelunkers does the US have? Or Canada or Mexico, since these little guys don’t have ADSB-out and seem untroubled bu international borders?

Yes they happen. Just not very often.