A new study has shown that rats could get infected with various COVID variants, including Alpha, Delta, and Omicron. Moreover, New York City rats in the sewer have also been exposed to coronavirus.
New York City Rats Get Infected With Coronavirus
EurekAlert reports that principal investigator Henry Wan, Ph.D., who serves as the professor and director at the Center for Influenza and Emerging Infectious Diseases at the University of Missouri, says that the findings stress the need to monitor the spread of coronavirus in groups of rats. This is important as there is a possibility for secondary zoonotic transmission to humans to take place.
The study was published in the mBio journal. As part of the study, the researchers caught 79 rats from three different areas across Brooklyn during the fall of 2021. They then tested the rats to see whether they had been exposed to the coronavirus.
Dr. Tom DeLiberto, a co-author of the study and SARS-CoV-2 coordinator with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the US Department of Agriculture, said that most of these rats were trapped inside Brooklyn city parks. There were some, however, that were caught outside of the boundaries of the parks.
CNN reports that 13 out of 79 rats (16.5%) were seen to harbor IgM or IgG antibodies to combat the virus. This suggests that they were previously infected with COVID-19.
The researchers note that several studies have proposed that genomic fragments of coronavirus could be spotted in sewage systems and that the prevalence of the virus in these systems aligns with outbreaks among humans. However, there has been no evidence to prove that the viruses within sewage waters are indeed infectious. This suggests that the rodents could have gotten exposed via airborne exposure.
The study notes that two rats were seen to have positive blood tests while being carriers of the RNA. This implies that they were exposed in the past to seropositive animals that could get or transmit the virus.
Genomic analyses revealed that the virus infection among rats was linked to the B-lineage strain that was prevalent in the city during the earlier periods of the pandemic. The researchers looked deeper and discovered that Omicron, Delta, and Alpha strains may also infect lab rats. This shows that they could also be carriers of COVID variants.
Other studies have shown that Hong Kong rats could have been exposed to the virus. However, this recent study is one of the first to demonstrate how the strains may infect rats in urban areas.
The Need To Monitor Rat Populations
The findings of the study stress how important it is for specialists to continually keep rat populations under their watch. This is necessary in order to watch for new strain evolutions that may pose threats to human life. It is also important for specialists to know more in order to protect humans and animals better.
Dr. Wan says that the case of the coronavirus is a "one-health challenge" that reveals the need for multisectoral, transdisciplinary, and collaborative efforts in order to know and deal with the pressing challenges.
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