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You are here: Home / Animals / COVID-19 Antibodies Found in Wild Whitetail Herd

COVID-19 Antibodies Found in Wild Whitetail Herd

August 8, 2021 By Lars Drecker

Whitetail doe in greenery

Your eyes, unfortunately, do not deceive you. According to researchers, COVID-19 has hit even our secluded woodlands. A survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has detected antibodies for SARS-CoV-2 in deer populations across four states. While this is, of course, eye-catching news, there may not be reason to fret too much. Though the deer have presented with antibodies, it does not appear any have presented with symptoms, meaning they are likely highly resilient to the disease.

This is not the first example of COVID-19 presenting in animals. Studies on captive whitetails found that the animals can contract and spread the virus in laboratory environments. This is, however, the first positive confirmation of wild transmission. Previously, the disease had been found in a range of zoo animals–such as gorillas and the Bronx zoo tigers–and house animals like cats and dogs, but whitetails join mink as the only animal to have contracted it in the wild.

According to National Geographic, 624 deer across Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania and New York were tested both pre- and post-pandemic. An analysis of 385 blood samples collected at the beginning months of this year (2021) indicated 152 deer (40%) possessed the appropriate antibodies. The highest percentage of these were found in  Michigan, where somewhere around 67 percent of 113 samples showed infection. In comparison, Illinois saw seven percent of its 101 samples test positive, New York saw 19 percent of 68, and Pennsylvania logged 31 percent of 199. As to how the deer are getting it, the answer is still unclear. Researchers currently have several theories, including that transmission could have occurred from other animals in the wild, contaminated wastewater, or even from humans.

“Given the percentage of samples in this study that had detectable antibodies, as well as the high numbers of white-tailed deer throughout the United States and their close contact with people, it is likely that deer in other states have also been exposed to the virus,” a USDA spokesperson told Nature magazine.

For more details, check out the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service website.

Lars Drecker

A humble homesteader based in an undisclosed location, Lars Drecker splits his time between tending his little slice of self-sustaining heaven, and bothering his neighbors to do his work for him. This is mainly the fault of a debilitating predilection for fishing, hunting, camping and all other things outdoors. When not engaged in any of the above activities, you can normally find him broken down on the side of the road, in some piece of junk he just “fixed-up.”

Filed Under: Animals, Game Tagged With: Antibodies, Buck, Coronavirus, COVID, COVID-19, Doe, Herd, Homestead, Homesteading, Hunt, Hunter, Hunting, Infection, Pandemic, Quarantine, WHitetail, Wild

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Chris says

    August 13, 2021 at 1:46 pm

    Article says the testing was both pre and post pandemic. So they were testing for covid-19 in deer before there was COVID-19 ? Just stop it already. Next we will be told deer contain MSG and gluten.

  2. CaptTurbo says

    August 13, 2021 at 9:58 am

    This is good news. It is literally herd immunity. It is how the human population should be handling a virus which is no more lethal than the flu. The experimental gene therapy is causing the aggressive mutations. We need to just let the virus run it’s course until we all have real, natural, wide spectrum immunity. I have been through this flu bug and have fully recovered so I have my immunity.

  3. Captain Obvious says

    August 13, 2021 at 9:46 am

    This comment thread alone is proof that our education system has failed us

  4. Charles Cox says

    August 13, 2021 at 8:24 am

    Maybe you should join the New World Onrder and you wouldn’t have to worry. Members get all the meat products they want and we all understand the earth is flat. Send $399 to 2703 old orchard ct Conroe Tx 77301. We will send you your New World Order Membership Card, 13 month Calendar and a Iron-on patch for your favorite shirt.

    • Captain Obvious says

      August 13, 2021 at 9:17 am

      Probably not a smart idea to post your address online like that 😂

  5. Gary Snyder says

    August 13, 2021 at 6:56 am

    This article only server to prepare you for what’s to come. They think you will be OK with animal genocide because they carry the virus. Think about it. The food industry is now trying to introduce you to plant based meat. People will think that’s just great as it tastes the same. We are headed to world depopulation and if you can’t see that you will never know what hit you. The new word order is cleaning up the planet for themselves . You and I are part of the problem. Covid, global warming are the greatest hoax ever. Wake up people!

    • JAG says

      August 13, 2021 at 7:28 am

      Your dead right and most don’t see it nor will when it smacks them square in the face.

    • Izzy says

      August 13, 2021 at 7:33 am

      Absolutley agreed… The PCR test is faulty and that’s why the CDC is abandoning it at the end of the year. They admittedly stated its causes false positives due the the high cycle. There is no Covid only flu…Covid is a form of the flu per AMA handbook 1989.
      You can test a Kiwi or soil, a tree and they will show positive to Covid….Like Gary said Wake the Heck Up…. I watch. Naturalnews.com, or Health Ranger Report on Brighteon.com.

    • Captain Obvious says

      August 13, 2021 at 9:20 am

      Maybe, just maybe people are eating more healthy and that’s why you’re seeing more plant-based stuff? Everything isn’t conspiracy. Eating a plant-based diet is better for the planet. Agribusiness does three times the damage as the transportation industry.

      • Nome says

        August 13, 2021 at 7:53 pm

        Attachment

        Disagree. I grew up vegan and was 315#, had high blood pressure, was pre diabetic, my hair was falling out and my cholesterol was terrible by my early 30’s. They changed me slowly to a normal diet, still nothing. Now I am on keto I lost 174.6# and my numbers are normal. Sadly I developed Hashimotos and several other degenerative conditions before that change. Mayo Clinic diagnosed me with the inability to digest protein from plants so basically the first 20 some years of my life I ate and yet starved. I was always hungry yet anemic, under nourished and had scurvy. Plant based isn’t healthier for everyone. Most of us still are hard wired as hunter gatherer types. My DNA test specified I am and the results of a decade of working with specialists have concurred. If I eat a plant based diet, I will die in less than 10 more years.

        • Nome says

          August 13, 2021 at 7:58 pm

          We also raise our own food now. We have little to no waste going to landfills. Everything recycles back into the farm. When you get food at the grocery stores, you are racking up pollution on the planet. Whether you eat meat or fake meat it is the same. Little plastic cartons, wrapped in boxes, mailed in more boxes wrapped in plastic shipped in more boxes.
          When you home raise your food, meat or not and you use re usable storage containers. We have a well, septic, our dogs, chickens and ducks eat wasted or leftover foods. Even the goats get things like melon rinds. Chickens are carnivores primarily as well. If you want to save the planet, stop fighting over what to eat and look at how you eat it.

      • GEORGE GRIENINGER says

        August 14, 2021 at 12:42 pm

        YEAH, THE VEGAN DIET AIN’T SO GREAT. WANT INFO ON HOW THE BODY WORKS, NUTRITIONALY ANYWAYS CHECK OUT DAVID CHAMPIONS MEW BOOK “BODY SCIENCE”. HA HAS DONE A LOT OF RESEARCH AND I TOO WENT KETO AND I AM BACK AT MY COLLEGE WIEGHT OF 185LBS, WAS 235 AND TYPE 2 DIABETIC WITH HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE, HE CAN BE FOUND ON UTUBE@ DR. REALITY. JUST SAYING FACTS DON’T CARE BOUT YOUR FEELING’S. WAKE UP AMERICA.

    • Carl Williams says

      August 13, 2021 at 8:18 pm

      Amen, brother., absolutely correct!

  6. Sharon Pine says

    August 13, 2021 at 6:14 am

    If you understand how they test for covid and the cycles. If the cycle threshold is over 20, everything will test positive for covid. And where is a clean isolated reference sample of covid? Ask what exactly are they testing? There is no gold standard for testing.

  7. Spike says

    August 13, 2021 at 6:07 am

    Who cares. They still taste the same.

    But seriously. This is a non-issue… until our dimwit prez decides to make it an issue.

    Will they start vaccinating the deer population now, and poison the meat supply? Watch, I bet they will, and we’ll end up with the entire North American deer population suffering from Jakob-Kreuz (Mad Cow). Think I’m joking? These idiots have no idea what they’re doing.

    It’s a flu folks… get over it, let it burn through and chalk it up to Mother Nature (although, of course, Mother Nature had nothing to do with this one).

    • Izzy says

      August 13, 2021 at 7:37 am

      Yup… with proteins in the Jab from HIV and Mad Cow among a few it would be detrimental to survival of humanity….. makes me wonder with all the” Wild Fire”fallout across the country if they are not spraying spike proteins un the air?
      Rumor has it and its becoming more and more truth, is that NY was hit so hard by sickness because Drones flew virus packets all over the city intentionally making people sick…. these people in power are sick, demented, evil, murderous physchopaths..

    • Captain Obvious says

      August 13, 2021 at 9:21 am

      Please stop breeding

  8. Edward Irvin says

    August 13, 2021 at 6:04 am

    Some of us know that this Covid was created on a computer and people that die of any virus are labeled Covid. This is the biggest fraud ever pulled on humanity and I can’t believe that people especially Americans fell for it.

    • Spike says

      August 13, 2021 at 6:10 am

      It does make you wonder if we Americans have grown weak over the centuries, or were always weak and this just exposed the mental illness.

      After all, it is estimated only 3% of the population had the guts to stand up to England to fight for independence.

      And sadly, it’s not just Americans who have been suckered. I’d say 50% of the world’s population has too.

      • Dan says

        August 13, 2021 at 10:17 am

        I believe it’s 30%

  9. Joseph Labarge says

    August 12, 2021 at 11:45 am

    The 9 scariest words in the English language …. I from the government and I am here to help. ( Ronald Reagan )

    • ray says

      August 13, 2021 at 4:55 pm

      is it just me or was that 10 words…..lol

  10. Alan Kopilec says

    August 12, 2021 at 8:58 am

    I heard a buck coughing the other day and said to the dear standing close to a couple of does just having a good time like nothing is wrong.. So I said: Hey, all you dears need to practice social distancing and get some masks on!

    They only looked at me like I was stupid.

  11. Michael says

    August 12, 2021 at 8:25 am

    And that is why we will never eradicate SARS COV-2. It will always have an animal sanctuary.

  12. cole johnson says

    August 12, 2021 at 8:17 am

    Deer with the flu? That is too funny. Sorry but, I don’t buy anything our current corrupt government says!

    • Captain Obvious says

      August 13, 2021 at 9:44 am

      Believe it or not, animals get sick

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