Oh deer: Researchers find white-tailed deer infected with COVID-19

By Drew Stremick

Researchers in Saskatchewan are concerned after studies have shown white-tailed deer in the province are testing positive for COVID-19.

Dr. Iga Stasiak is a provincial wildlife health specialist who is helping out as the University of Saskatchewan conducts this research.

Stasiak says experts have been concerned this might happen since the pandemic began.

“Since this virus came about, we’ve been really interested to see the potential for it to be transmitted to wildlife,” she said.

“The main concern related to that is the possibility that the virus could spill over into wildlife populations and could actually become established in wildlife, serving as what we call a reservoir, meaning the virus could persist in wildlife populations and have the possibility or opportunity to spill back into the human population.”

Saskatchewan isn’t the only province conducting the research. Stasiak says different institutions and levels of government are all working together.

“We work closely with Environment and Climate Change Canada,” she said. “They have been the ones spearheading this work across Canada, as well as the University of Saskatchewan and the Canadian Wildlife Health Co-operative.”

As far as transmission goes, the likelihood of a dee sneezing in your face is extremely low, but Stasiak says hunters should still take caution when dealing with game.

“We do recommend taking precautions such as wearing gloves and hand-washing, so (use) general hygiene when field dressing as well as wearing a mask if you’re removing the respiratory tract, lungs and other tissue from the animal,” she said.

Stasiak made it clear that at this time there is no perceived risk with eating venison as COVID-19 is a respiratory virus and not a food-borne virus.

Currently, researchers don’t know how white-tailed deer in the province started getting COVID-19. Strasiak says there are a few possibilities including feed or water sources.

“We believe there are many ways deer could become infected. Water and feed sources have been suggested, but we don’t believe the virus persists for a very long time in water, so it’s a little bit of an enigma still,” Stasiak said.

“Likely it is spilling over from humans. We’re fairly confident about that. Just how it’s getting into the deer population we’re not quite sure.”

Going forward, researchers plan to study just how long COVID persists in the deer population and if there are novel strains or different strains separate from what has been seen in human populations.

When hunting season begins in the fall, information on where hunters can go to donate samples to help with the research will be posted on the government’s website.