According to the researchers, about 1.3 million mice could be infected with Covid in New York and favor new variants
According to an American study, New York mice, mice could become a reservoir of Covid and its variants. But further studies are needed to confirm this hypothesis.
New York rats, potential vehicle of transmission of Covid?
The rat population living on the streets of New York City could pose a new threat to the inhabitants of the metropolis. According to a study published in the riscientific view mBiomice could in fact be a vehicle of transmission of Covid-19.
This is not the first time that the presence of the virus has been recorded in animals: in the past, some domestic animals – such as dogs and cats – and other wild ones have tested positive. Although the passage of the virus from animals to humans has never been proven.
Mice “particularly sensitive” to the virus
However, the significant fact of this American study is represented by the discovery that rodents are particularly sensitive to the virus and all its variants. “This is one of the first studies to show that SARS-CoV-2 variants can infect the rodent population in a major urban area in the United States,” said Dr. Henry Wan, research lead at the University of Missouri. .
Millions of potentially infected mice
The research team looked at 79 mice in the fall of 2021, found mostly in Brooklyn parks. Thirteen of them (16,5%) tested positive for the virus. By expanding the positivity rate to the entire New York mouse population (about 8 million), the researchers estimated that about 1.3 million mice could be infected.
The need for further studies
The risk of variants
If the possibility that mice can infect humans is an event to be considered rather rare, what worries scientists is that rodents could, if anything, become the “reservoirs” for new variants even if, as Professor Wan warned, further studies to understand what threat mice represent for the development of new mutations and for human health.