Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Oct 18;14(10):2290.
doi: 10.3390/v14102290.

Wild Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) Do Not Play a Role as Vectors or Reservoirs of SARS-CoV-2 in North-Eastern Poland

Martyna Krupińska  1 , Jakub Borkowski  2 , Aleksander Goll  1 , Joanna Nowicka  1 , Karolina Baranowicz  1 , Vincent Bourret  3   4   5 , Tomas Strandin  3 , Sanna Mäki  3 , Ravi Kant  3   4 , Tarja Sironen  3   4 , Maciej Grzybek  1
Affiliations

Wild Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) Do Not Play a Role as Vectors or Reservoirs of SARS-CoV-2 in North-Eastern Poland

Martyna Krupińska et al. Viruses. .

Abstract

Several studies reported a high prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 among white-tailed deer in North America. Monitoring cervids in all regions to better understand SARS-CoV-2 infection and circulation in other deer populations has been urged. To evaluate deer exposure and/or infection to/by SARS-CoV-2 in Poland, we sampled 90 red deer shot by hunters in five hunting districts in north-eastern Poland. Serum and nasopharyngeal swabs were collected, and then an immunofluorescent assay (IFA) to detect anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies was performed as well as real-time PCR with reverse transcription for direct virus detection. No positive samples were detected. There is no evidence of spillover of SARS-CoV-2 from the human to deer population in Poland.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; cervid; deer; spillover; susceptibility; transmission.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Four hunting districts are located in north-eastern Poland. The black bar indicates 100 km distance (Map data, Google, 2022).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Shan C., Yao Y.F., Yang X.L., Zhou Y.W., Gao G., Peng Y., Yang L., Hu X., Xiong J., Jiang R.D., et al. Infection with novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) causes pneumonia in Rhesus macaques. Cell Res. 2020;30:670. doi: 10.1038/s41422-020-0364-z. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Shi J., Wen Z., Zhong G., Yang H., Wang C., Huang B., Liu R., He X., Shuai L., Sun Z., et al. Susceptibility of ferrets, cats, dogs and other domesticated animals to SARS-coronavirus 2. Science. 2020;368:1016–1020. doi: 10.1126/science.abb7015. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Rabalski L., Kosinski M., Smura T., Aaltonen K., Kant R., Sironen T., Szewczyk B., Grzybek M. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 in Farmed Mink (Neovison vison), Poland. Emerg. Infect. Dis. 2021;27:2333–2339. doi: 10.3201/eid2709.210286. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Oreshkova N., Molenaar R.J., Vreman S., Harders F., Oude Munnink B.B., Hakze-van der Honing R.W., Gerhards N., Tolsma P., Bouwstra R., Sikkema R.S., et al. SARS-CoV-2 infection in farmed minks, the Netherlands, April and May 2020. Eurosurveillance. 2020;25:2001005. doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.23.2001005. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Mahdy M.A.A., Younis W., Ewaida Z. An Overview of SARS-CoV-2 and Animal Infection. Front. Vet. Sci. 2020;7:596391. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2020.596391. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types