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A uncivilised mink coat in Utah tested positive for SARS - CoV-2 , the virus that causes COVID-19 , and it may be the first " free - ranging , native wild animal " with a confirmed coronavirus infection , according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture ( USDA ) .
There ’s no evidence that thevirusspread further than this one infectedmink , but if SARS - CoV-2 begins circulating among risky animal , that could place humanity at risk for futurepandemics , Live Science previously reported . virus often pick up mutations as they hop between animal species , and if this computer virus were to mutate significantly , COVID-19 vaccines may not protect well against the raw interlingual rendition , should it disseminate back to humankind .
The infected critter was see near a mink coat farm in Utah , which has reportedcoronavirusinfections among its animals , according to a Dec. 13statementfrom the USDA National Veterinary Services Laboratories . Veterinarians collected a sample distribution of the virus using a nasal swab and found the virus to be " identical " from sample compile from septic mink on the farm . This suggests that the idle mink coat pick up the infection from the farmed mink , potentially through wastewater overflow , Vox reported . Farmed mink can sometimes escape into the natural state and could spread the transmission in that room , Live Science antecedently reported .
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The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has screened other animal species for the virus near mink coat farm in Utah , Michigan and Wisconsin , but so far those tests have come back negative , according to the statement . Just the one infect wild mink has been spotted so far , but it ’s possible that more may be out there , Stephanie Seifert , a investigator at Washington State University ’s School for Global Animal Health , tell apart Vox .
It ’s " very unlikely they swabbed the only wild mink with SARS - CoV-2 , " Seifert said .
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If allowed to spread unchecked in wild animals , the coronavirus could evolve to infect a all-embracing range of species than it presently can , Live Science previously reported . In addition , idle animals could potentially swear out as a reservoir for the computer virus — a universe in which the pathogen could remain to open and mutate . The virus could potentially stand out from this reservoir back into humans , spark young wafture of contagion .
" If it does [ establish a artificial lake ] , then we ’ve get down a long - term consequence here , where this virus has the potential to be with us for millennia , " Sarah Olson , associate director of the health program at the Wildlife Conservation Society , recount Vox .
Originally published on Live Science .
