RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Highly divergent white-tailed deer SARS-CoV-2 with potential deer-to-human transmission
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2022.02.22.481551
DO 10.1101/2022.02.22.481551
A1 Bradley Pickering
A1 Oliver Lung
A1 Finlay Maguire
A1 Peter Kruczkiewicz
A1 Jonathan D. Kotwa
A1 Tore Buchanan
A1 Marianne Gagnier
A1 Jennifer L. Guthrie
A1 Claire M. Jardine
A1 Alex Marchand-Austin
A1 Ariane Massé
A1 Heather McClinchey
A1 Kuganya Nirmalarajah
A1 Patryk Aftanas
A1 Juliette Blais-Savoie
A1 Hsien-Yao Chee
A1 Emily Chien
A1 Winfield Yim
A1 Melissa Goolia
A1 Matthew Suderman
A1 Mathieu Pinette
A1 Greg Smith
A1 Daniel Sullivan
A1 Jossip Rudar
A1 Elizabeth Adey
A1 Michelle Nebroski
A1 Marceline Côté
A1 Geneviève Laroche
A1 Allison J. McGeer
A1 Larissa Nituch
A1 Samira Mubareka
A1 Jeff Bowman
YR 2022
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/02/25/2022.02.22.481551.abstract
AB Wildlife reservoirs of SARS-CoV-2 can lead to viral adaptation and spillback from wildlife to humans (Oude Munnink et al., 2021). In North America, there is evidence of spillover of SARS-CoV-2 from humans to white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), but no evidence of transmission from deer to humans (Hale et al., 2021; Kotwa et al., 2022; Kuchipudi et al., 2021). Through a multidisciplinary research collaboration for SARS-CoV-2 surveillance in Canadian wildlife, we identified a new and highly divergent lineage of SARS-CoV-2. This lineage has 76 consensus mutations including 37 previously associated with non-human animal hosts, 23 of which were not previously reported in deer. There were also mutational signatures of host adaptation under neutral selection. Phylogenetic analysis revealed an epidemiologically linked human case from the same geographic region and sampling period. Together, our findings represent the first evidence of a highly divergent lineage of SARS-CoV-2 in white-tailed deer and of deer-to-human transmission.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.