American scientists say Back in April 2020, news appeared that lions and tigers at the Bronx Zoo (USA) were infected with COVID-19. Later it turned out that in fact this virus can infect many other species of animals. Read more about this in the article.Discuss
Today, according to scientists from the University of Colorado (USA), the list of animals infected with coronavirus includes more than a dozen of their species. However, it may well turn out that the infection is much more contagious than currently thought. The thing is that so far very few animals have been tested. But in any case, this can also affect a person, because some individuals can transmit the virus to him, and also contribute to the emergence of mutations of this virus.
By February 2022, the researchers found that susceptible to infection with SARS-CoV-2 31 species. Among them are some of the non-human primates, ferrets, deer mice, hyenas, wood rats< /strong>, red foxes, striped skunks. Also, of the species of animals living in the wild, the virus was found only in mink and white-tailed deer. At the same time, most animals do not have any symptoms of the disease, but still they are able to transmit the virus to other individuals and, possibly, to humans.
In general, experts note that the risk of human infection from an animal is much lower than from another person. This applies to most people. However, if the covid lives and spreads among animals, and then again passes to people, then this can be dangerous for public health. in the environment. Also, populations of infected animals can contribute to the maintenance of this virus in a given area, especially when you consider that, for example, deer in the United States live in suburban areas and can indeed transmit the virus to people. Finally, when the virus is transmitted from humans to animals, it quickly accumulates many mutations. There is even an assumption that some new variants of covid could have arisen in animals, and then moved on to humans.
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Source: The Conversation