Screening of wild deer populations for exposure to SARS-CoV-2 in the United Kingdom, 2020–2021

Maya Holding; Ashley David Otter; Stuart Dowall; Katsuhisa Takumi; Bethany Hicks; Tom Coleman; Georgia Hemingway; Matthew Royds; Stephen Findlay-Wilson; Mollie Curran-French; Richard Vipond; Hein Sprong; Roger Hewson

doi:10.1111/tbed.14534

Screening of wild deer populations for exposure to SARS-CoV-2 in the United Kingdom, 2020–2021

Maya Holding^*
, Ashley David Otter
, Stuart Dowall
, Katsuhisa Takumi
, Bethany Hicks
, Tom Coleman
, Georgia Hemingway
, Matthew Royds
, Stephen Findlay-Wilson
, Mollie Curran-French
, Richard Vipond
, Hein Sprong
, Roger Hewson

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

17 Citations (Scopus)

93 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Following findings in Northern America of SARS-CoV-2 infections in white-tailed deer, there is concern of similar infections in European deer and their potential as reservoirs of SARS-CoV-2 including opportunities for the emergence of new variants. UK deer sera were collected in 2020–2021 from 6 species and a hybrid with 1748 tested using anti-spike and anti-nucleocapsid serology assays. No samples were positive on both assays nor by surrogate neutralization testing. There is no evidence that spill-over infections of SARS-CoV-2 occurred from the human population to UK deer or that SARS-CoV-2 has been circulating in UK deer (over the study period). Although it cannot be ruled out, study results indicate that spill-over infections followed by circulation of SARS-CoV-2 to the most common European deer species is small.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	e3244-e3249
Journal	Transboundary and Emerging Diseases
Volume	69
Issue number	5
Early online date	8 Apr 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/tbed.14534
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 8 Apr 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information: The authors have declared no conflict of interest.

Open Access: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Crown copyright. Transboundary and Emerging Diseases published by Wiley-VCH GmbH. This article is published with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland.

Citation: Holding, M., Otter, A. D., Dowall, S., Takumi, K., Hicks, B., Coleman, T., Hemingway, G., Royds, M., Findlay-Wilson, S., Curran-French, M., Vipond, R., Sprong, H., & Hewson, R. (2022). Screening of wild deer populations for exposure to SARS-CoV-2 in the United Kingdom, 2020–2021. Transboundary and Emerging Diseases, 00, 1– 6.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/tbed.14534

Keywords

COVID-19 serological testing
SARS-CoV-2
United Kingdom
deer
sentinel surveillance
viral zoonoses

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10.1111/tbed.14534Licence: CC BY

Holding2022ScreeningOfWildDeerPopulationsForExposureToSARS‐CoV‐2InTheUnitedKingdomTransboundEmergDisFinal published version, 1.15 MBLicence: CC BY

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Holding, M., Otter, A. D., Dowall, S., Takumi, K., Hicks, B., Coleman, T., Hemingway, G., Royds, M., Findlay-Wilson, S., Curran-French, M., Vipond, R., Sprong, H., & Hewson, R. (2022). Screening of wild deer populations for exposure to SARS-CoV-2 in the United Kingdom, 2020–2021. Transboundary and Emerging Diseases, 69(5), e3244-e3249. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/tbed.14534

@article{b240505bbe3f4d0e9ba7736b68778e3c,

title = "Screening of wild deer populations for exposure to SARS-CoV-2 in the United Kingdom, 2020–2021",

abstract = "Following findings in Northern America of SARS-CoV-2 infections in white-tailed deer, there is concern of similar infections in European deer and their potential as reservoirs of SARS-CoV-2 including opportunities for the emergence of new variants. UK deer sera were collected in 2020–2021 from 6 species and a hybrid with 1748 tested using anti-spike and anti-nucleocapsid serology assays. No samples were positive on both assays nor by surrogate neutralization testing. There is no evidence that spill-over infections of SARS-CoV-2 occurred from the human population to UK deer or that SARS-CoV-2 has been circulating in UK deer (over the study period). Although it cannot be ruled out, study results indicate that spill-over infections followed by circulation of SARS-CoV-2 to the most common European deer species is small.",

keywords = "COVID-19 serological testing, SARS-CoV-2, United Kingdom, deer, sentinel surveillance, viral zoonoses",

author = "Maya Holding and Otter, \{Ashley David\} and Stuart Dowall and Katsuhisa Takumi and Bethany Hicks and Tom Coleman and Georgia Hemingway and Matthew Royds and Stephen Findlay-Wilson and Mollie Curran-French and Richard Vipond and Hein Sprong and Roger Hewson",

note = "Funding Information: The authors have declared no conflict of interest. Open Access: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 Crown copyright. Transboundary and Emerging Diseases published by Wiley-VCH GmbH. This article is published with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland. Citation: Holding, M., Otter, A. D., Dowall, S., Takumi, K., Hicks, B., Coleman, T., Hemingway, G., Royds, M., Findlay-Wilson, S., Curran-French, M., Vipond, R., Sprong, H., \& Hewson, R. (2022). Screening of wild deer populations for exposure to SARS-CoV-2 in the United Kingdom, 2020–2021. Transboundary and Emerging Diseases, 00, 1– 6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/tbed.14534 ",

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Holding, M, Otter, AD, Dowall, S, Takumi, K, Hicks, B, Coleman, T, Hemingway, G, Royds, M, Findlay-Wilson, S, Curran-French, M, Vipond, R, Sprong, H & Hewson, R 2022, 'Screening of wild deer populations for exposure to SARS-CoV-2 in the United Kingdom, 2020–2021', Transboundary and Emerging Diseases, vol. 69, no. 5, pp. e3244-e3249. https://doi.org/10.1111/tbed.14534

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AU - Holding, Maya

AU - Otter, Ashley David

AU - Dowall, Stuart

AU - Takumi, Katsuhisa

AU - Hicks, Bethany

AU - Coleman, Tom

AU - Hemingway, Georgia

AU - Royds, Matthew

AU - Findlay-Wilson, Stephen

AU - Curran-French, Mollie

AU - Vipond, Richard

AU - Sprong, Hein

AU - Hewson, Roger

N1 - Funding Information: The authors have declared no conflict of interest. Open Access: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Crown copyright. Transboundary and Emerging Diseases published by Wiley-VCH GmbH. This article is published with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland. Citation: Holding, M., Otter, A. D., Dowall, S., Takumi, K., Hicks, B., Coleman, T., Hemingway, G., Royds, M., Findlay-Wilson, S., Curran-French, M., Vipond, R., Sprong, H., & Hewson, R. (2022). Screening of wild deer populations for exposure to SARS-CoV-2 in the United Kingdom, 2020–2021. Transboundary and Emerging Diseases, 00, 1– 6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/tbed.14534

PY - 2022/4/8

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N2 - Following findings in Northern America of SARS-CoV-2 infections in white-tailed deer, there is concern of similar infections in European deer and their potential as reservoirs of SARS-CoV-2 including opportunities for the emergence of new variants. UK deer sera were collected in 2020–2021 from 6 species and a hybrid with 1748 tested using anti-spike and anti-nucleocapsid serology assays. No samples were positive on both assays nor by surrogate neutralization testing. There is no evidence that spill-over infections of SARS-CoV-2 occurred from the human population to UK deer or that SARS-CoV-2 has been circulating in UK deer (over the study period). Although it cannot be ruled out, study results indicate that spill-over infections followed by circulation of SARS-CoV-2 to the most common European deer species is small.

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KW - COVID-19 serological testing

KW - SARS-CoV-2

KW - United Kingdom

KW - deer

KW - sentinel surveillance

KW - viral zoonoses

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DO - 10.1111/tbed.14534

M3 - Article

C2 - 35338581

AN - SCOPUS:85127669146

SN - 1865-1674

VL - 69

SP - e3244-e3249

JO - Transboundary and Emerging Diseases

JF - Transboundary and Emerging Diseases

IS - 5

ER -

Screening of wild deer populations for exposure to SARS-CoV-2 in the United Kingdom, 2020–2021

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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