By Xin Ping
White-tailed deer are one of the most abundant wild animals in the United States. Around 30 million white-tailed deer live in the country, many of which are in close proximity to human beings. But recent study shows that these wild animals may hold some important clues to the origins of COVID-19.
On August 2, Nature magazine published a report that may change the course of COVID-19 origins-tracing. According to the research by a group of scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in Fort Collins, Colorado, a striking 40% of white-tailed deer in the north-eastern U.S. have antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, a sign of infection of the virus. They evaluated 624 pre- and post-pandemic serum samples from wild white-tailed deer from four U.S. states for SARS-CoV-2 exposure. Antibodies were detected in 152 samples (40%) from 2021, and three samples from 2020. Especially noteworthy is that one sample collected in 2019 turned out to be positive for COVID-19 infection, earlier than the first confirmed case of novel coronavirus detected in the U.S. on January 21, 2020.
This discovery is a breakthrough for the virus origins-tracing. On the one hand, it further supports the conclusion of WHO-China study in March 2021 that the virus was most likely to jump from animals to humans, rather than to be leaked from a lab. White-tailed deer are the potential intermediate hosts that experts have been searching hard for. On the other hand, the infected sample from 2019 brings forward the time that COVID-19 case first appeared in the U.S., corroborating reports that the virus had been already spreading within the country in 2019.
The finding is good news for scientists, but may not be for some U.S. politicians. Here's the irony: the U.S. clamours for the second phase of virus origins probe in China, despite the fact that antibodies of novel coronavirus in wildlife were first detected on its own land.
A couple of questions arise naturally in connection with the study of white-tailed deer: first, did the U.S. government immediately share this critical finding with the WHO? Second, why did the sampling of chronic wasting diseases in white-tailed deer in Maryland, where Fort Detrick is located, come to a grinding halt last fall? Third, has Fort Detrick ever played any role in the sampling?
All this makes it only reasonable and logical to call for an origins-tracing investigation in the U.S.. A thorough research of the infected deer would help in bringing us a step closer to the sources of the virus.
The U.S. has declared that COVID-19 origins-tracing should be timely, scientific, transparent and expert-led. People from across the world expect to see the U.S. act on what it claims. As so many questions remain unanswered, now is the time to begin with the U.S. part of WHO-convened global study of origins of SARS-CoV-2.
