Scott Weese, DVM, has kept information and perspective on SARS-CoV-2 updated and fresh over the past two years. He writes, “While control of the pandemic at this stage is pretty much still solely dependent on addressing human-to-human transmission, as things slowly get more controlled in people, other sources of infection and other sources of variants become more relevant. The potential for animals to be sources of variants is a realistic concern.”
. . . we want to keep this virus in the human population. If we spread it to animals, it will be much harder to control in the long term.” – Scott Weese, DVM
Weese says a report about a wastewater study from New York (Smyth et al. Nature Communications 2022) adds another twist to the story.
Source: Worms and Germs Blog, February 4, 2022. Link. Rats a potential reservoir. The wastewater study suggests that there is an unknown source of SARS-CoV-2 that’s not captured by routine clinical testing of people. A potential explanation (and one that fits better in some ways) is movement of SARS-CoV-2 into an animal reservoir (e.g. rats) that lives in the urban environment, is susceptible to the virus, and is present in large enough numbers to both sustain transmission and to produce enough virus that it’s detectable in wastewater.