Louisiana is beginning to test whitetail deer for the presence of COVID-19 after the same animals tested positive for the virus in Iowa. LDWF Deer Program Manager Jonathan Bordelon says that “while testing for other diseases they decided to also look for SARS-CoV2 and what they found was actually surprising. They found antibodies for the virus within those samples.”
Bordelon says the state is now joining with the USDA Wildlife Services to collect blood for testing from whitetail deer harvested by hunters in Louisiana. It’s not known if the deer can transmit the virus to humans.
Bordelon says that even if a deer is infected with the coronavirus, they don’t appear to show any signs of it. “There have been no cases of deer demonstrating any symptoms of the virus,” stated Bordelon.
He says it comes as no surprise that deer and other animals can be infected with the COVID virus, but how it’s transmitted is the bigger question. “The fact that the deer themselves can be infected is less of a surprise, but the route of transmission is still somewhat of an unknown,” says Bordelon.
Comments