A recent study reveals that these rodents very present in our cities and our countryside are carriers of Covid-19. Researchers fear that the virus might mutate in their organism and create new variants.
For the WHO, the Covid-19 is behind us. Three years following the outbreak of the pandemic, the Director General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, assured that he was “confident” as to the fact that the Covid will cease to be a problem “public health, an international emergency”. And to estimate that the disease may be “prevented and treated“as can be “seasonal flu” from this year.
In the meantime, a new study is reviving fears of the emergence of new variants. A concern fueled by analyzes carried out on New York rats. According to a publication in the journal mBio from the American Society for Microbiology, rodents living in the American city are carriers of the coronavirus and have tested positive for several of its variants (Alpha, Delta, Omicron).
In the fall of 2021, a team from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service studied rats wild browns that live in New York’s sewer systems. 79 rats were analyzed to establish a serological study and sequencing of their genome. Conclusion: thirteen specimens were carriers of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, i.e. 16.5% of them.
“Determine if the circulating virus is evolving towards new strains that might pose a risk to humans”
In a communiqué, the researchers believe that the phenomenon is not confined to American cities. “These wild rats have many opportunities to interact with humans. Two previous studies have suggested that rats in Asia (Hong Kong) and Europe (Belgium) were exposed to SARS-CoV-2; however, it is unclear which variant of SARS-CoV-2 these rats were exposed to in the two studies.”say the scientists.
And to add: “Our results highlight the need for further surveillance of Sars-CoV-2 in rat populations for a possible secondary zoonotic transmission to humans“, said Professor Henry Wan, director of the Center for influenza and emerging infectious diseases at the University of Missouri and lead author of the study. It is crucial to “determine whether the virus circulates in animals and evolves into new strains that might pose a risk to humans”he concluded.
