* Drudge posted this Fox New York story on his site…

When researchers in Iowa first began testing deer for COVID-19 in April of 2020, they didn’t find any signs of the virus for months. That changed in the fall when the first positives popped up in September and October.

Then in a seven-week period from just before Thanksgiving until January 10, 82.5% of the deer tested positive, signs that it was spreading rapidly among white-tailed deer.

The research by Penn State and the Iowa DNR is still in peer review, but they write it’s the first to show evidence of widespread dissemination of COVID-19 in wildlife and that it shows that deer have the potential to be a “major reservoir host” for the virus.

The threat for deer hunters is minimal. There is no evidence, yet, that COVID-19 can transmit from deer to humans. Also if deer meat is properly prepared and cooked, there’s no risk consuming venison.

But as we work through vaccinations to stop the spread in humans, the concerns and questions are the scientific what ifs — the potential that COVID survives in the wild and continues to mutate. If so, new strains, potentially more resistant to vaccines, could develop that could find a way to jump back to humans again.

* I asked Jordan Abudayyeh at the governor’s office if IDNR had done any deer studies. She pointed me to this from the USDA…

[The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)] ccollected a total of 481 samples between January 2020 and March 2021 from Illinois, Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania. We detected SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in 33 percent of those samples. The results varied by State (Illinois = 7 percent of 101 samples contained antibodies; Michigan = 67 percent of 113 samples; New York = 19 percent of 68 samples; and Pennsylvania = 31 percent of 199 samples). Although the results indicate that certain white-tailed deer populations in these States were exposed to SARS-CoV-2, they should not be extrapolated to represent the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in the deer populations as a whole. […]

Did the deer get the virus from people, the environment, or other deer?

We do not know how the deer were exposed to SARS- CoV-2. It’s possible they were exposed through people, the environment, other deer, or another animal species.

Could the deer spread the virus to people?

There is no evidence that animals, including deer, are playing a significant role in the spread of SARS-CoV-2 to people. Based on the available information, the risk of animals spreading COVID-19 to people is low.

Do deer show clinical signs of illness?

This was not the focus of our study. However, there were no reports of clinical illness associated with SARS-CoV-2 in the deer populations we surveyed, and clinical signs of SARS-CoV-2 have not been observed in wild white-tailed deer. In addition, captive deer experimentally infected with SARS-CoV-2 as part of a USDA Agricultural Research Service study did not show clinical signs of illness. […]

Is hunter-harvested game meat safe to eat?

There is no evidence that people can get COVID-19 by preparing or eating meat from an animal infected with SARS-CoV-2, including wild game meat hunted in the United States. However, hunters can get infected with many other diseases when processing or eating game.

* Also from Jordan…

DNR will work with USDA to test between 500-1000 deer this winter for COVID.

As the USDA report pointed out, ARPA included money for testing animals and the feds would be working with states on how to do this.

Finding out if animals can spread the disease to humans, or which can do so, could be important to stopping the spread.