“On March 22, the APHIS’ National Veterinary Services Lab in Ames, Iowa confirmed a case of the SARS-CoV-2 delta variant in one of the samples submitted from a female mule deer in Morgan County. Only one deer tested positive for the virus from the nasal samples, but several other Utah deer had the antibodies in their blood samples, indicating the virus had been in the deer population prior to the capture.”
Officials don’t yet know how the deer were originally exposed to the virus and are investigating further to determine whether it was from another animal or a human.
SARS-CoV-2 virus in Saskatchewan white-tailed deer
A team from the University of Saskatchewan (USask) found positive results in viral RNA swabs taken from four white-tailed deer harvested in 2021.
The National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease confirmed the results, which represent two percent of 227 white-tailed deer tested in Saskatchewan. Ten percent of 62 white-tailed deer tested also had SARS-CoV-2 antibodies—indicating previous exposure or active infection.
94.4% of captive deer at a Texas park seropositive for SARS-CoV-2
Through a cross-sectional study of 80 deer at three captive cervid facilities in central and southern Texas, we provide evidence of 34 of 36 (94.4%) white-tailed deer at a single captive cervid facility seropositive for SARS-CoV-2 by neutralization assay (PRNT90), with endpoint titers as high as 1,280.
