PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Vanessa L. Hale
AU  - Patricia M. Dennis
AU  - Dillon S. McBride
AU  - Jaqueline M. Nolting
AU  - Christopher Madden
AU  - Devra Huey
AU  - Margot Ehrlich
AU  - Jennifer Grieser
AU  - Jenessa Winston
AU  - Dusty Lombardi
AU  - Stormy Gibson
AU  - Linda Saif
AU  - Mary L. Killian
AU  - Kristina Lantz
AU  - Rachel Tell
AU  - Mia Torchetti
AU  - Suelee Robbe-Austerman
AU  - Martha I. Nelson
AU  - Seth A. Faith
AU  - Andrew S. Bowman
TI  - SARS-CoV-2 infection in free-ranging white-tailed deer (<em>Odocoileus virginianus</em>)
AID  - 10.1101/2021.11.04.467308
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2021.11.04.467308
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/11/05/2021.11.04.467308.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/11/05/2021.11.04.467308.full
AB  - Human-to-animal spillover of SARS-CoV-2 virus has occurred in a wide range of animals, but thus far, the establishment of a new natural animal reservoir has not been detected. Here, we detected SARS-CoV-2 virus using rRT-PCR in 129 out of 360 (35.8%) free-ranging white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) from northeast Ohio (USA) sampled between January-March 2021. Deer in 6 locations were infected with at least 3 lineages of SARS-CoV-2 (B.1.2, B.1.596, B.1.582). The B.1.2 viruses, dominant in Ohio at the time, spilled over multiple times into deer populations in different locations. Deer-to-deer transmission may have occurred in three locations. The establishment of a natural reservoir of SARS-CoV-2 in white-tailed deer could facilitate divergent evolutionary trajectories and future spillback to humans, further complicating long-term COVID-19 control strategies.One-Sentence Summary A significant proportion of SARS-CoV-2 infection in free-ranging US white-tailed deer reveals a potential new reservoir.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.