Surveillance of Vermont wildlife in 2021–2022 reveals no detected SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA

Previous studies have documented natural infections of SARS-CoV-2 in various domestic and wild animals. More recently, studies have been published noting the susceptibility of members of the Cervidae family, and infections in both wild and captive cervid populations. In this study, we investigated t...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Scientific reports Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 14683 - 8
Main Authors:	Despres, Hannah W., Mills, Margaret G., Schmidt, Madaline M., Gov, Jolene, Perez, Yael, Jindrich, Mars, Crawford, Allison M. L., Kohl, Warren T., Rosenblatt, Elias, Kubinski, Hannah C., Simmons, Benjamin C., Nippes, Miles C., Goldenberg, Anne J., Murtha, Kristina E., Nicoloro, Samantha, Harris, Mia J., Feeley, Avery C., Gelinas, Taylor K., Cronin, Maeve K., Frederick, Robert S., Thomas, Matthew, Johnson, Meaghan E., Murphy, James, Lenzini, Elle B., Carr, Peter A., Berger, Danielle H., Mehta, Soham P., Floreani, Christopher J., Koval, Amelia C., Young, Aleah L., Fish, Jess H., Wallace, Jack, Chaney, Ella, Ushay, Grace, Ross, Rebecca S., Vostal, Erin M., Thisner, Maya C., Gonet, Kyliegh E., Deane, Owen C., Pelletiere, Kari R., Rockafeller, Vegas C., Waterman, Madeline, Barry, Tyler W., Goering, Catriona C., Shipman, Sarah D., Shiers, Allie C., Reilly, Claire E., Duff, Alanna M., Madruga, Sarah L., Shirley, David J., Jerome, Keith R., Pérez-Osorio, Ailyn C., Greninger, Alexander L., Fortin, Nick, Mosher, Brittany A., Bruce, Emily A.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	London Nature Publishing Group UK 06-09-2023 Nature Publishing Group Nature Portfolio
Subjects:	631/326/596/2562 631/326/596/2564 631/326/596/4130 Animals Animals, Wild Anthropogenic factors Bears Canis latrans Contamination COVID-19 COVID-19 - epidemiology Coyotes Deer Domestic animals E protein Foxes Humanities and Social Sciences Lontra canadensis Lynx Lynx rufus rufus Martes pennanti multidisciplinary N gene Nucleotide sequence Odocoileus virginianus Otters Population studies Ribonucleic acid RNA RNA, Viral - genetics RNA-directed DNA polymerase SARS-CoV-2 - genetics Science Science (multidisciplinary) Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 Surveillance Urocyon cinereoargenteus Ursus americanus Vermont - epidemiology Vulpes vulpes Wildlife Vermont United States > US
Online Access:	Get full text
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Description
Summary:	Previous studies have documented natural infections of SARS-CoV-2 in various domestic and wild animals. More recently, studies have been published noting the susceptibility of members of the Cervidae family, and infections in both wild and captive cervid populations. In this study, we investigated the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in mammalian wildlife within the state of Vermont. 739 nasal or throat samples were collected from wildlife throughout the state during the 2021 and 2022 harvest season. Data was collected from red and gray foxes ( Vulpes vulples and Urocyon cineroargentus, respectively), fishers ( Martes pennati ), river otters ( Lutra canadensis ), coyotes ( Canis lantrans ), bobcats ( Lynx rufus rufus ), black bears ( Ursus americanus ), and white-tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus ). Samples were tested for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 via quantitative RT-qPCR using the CDC N1/N2 primer set and/or the WHO-E gene primer set. Surprisingly, we initially detected a number of N1 and/or N2 positive samples with high cycle threshold values, though after conducting environmental swabbing of the laboratory and verifying with a second independent primer set (WHO-E) and PCR without reverse transcriptase, we showed that these were false positives due to plasmid contamination from a construct expressing the N gene in the general laboratory environment. Our final results indicate that no sampled wildlife were positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA, and highlight the importance of physically separate locations for the processing of samples for surveillance and experiments that require the use of plasmid DNA containing the target RNA sequence. These negative findings are surprising, given that most published North America studies have found SARS-CoV-2 within their deer populations. The absence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in populations sampled here may provide insights in to the various environmental and anthropogenic factors that reduce spillover and spread in North American’s wildlife populations.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	2045-2322 2045-2322
DOI:	10.1038/s41598-023-39232-0