More than two years after the pandemicthe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) they finally confirmed the first such case of animal-to-human transmission of the COVID virus.
Two of the infected people are employees of a Michigan mink farm.
The US health agency recently revealed that a variant of covid observed primarily in mink in 2020 had infected at least four Americans.
Two of the infected people are employees from a Michigan mink farm that witnessed an outbreak of coronavirus in October 2020. The remaining two belong to the same area but had no link to the farm.
The recent revelation suggests that the mink variant it may have been circulating more widely in the area at the time.
What else is known about this event?
Casey Barton Behravesh, who heads the CDC’s Office of Single Health, told a major news portal that the sample collected during that time from the four people contained two mutations. Scientists believe they may be signs of adaptation to mink.
However, Behravesh added that there are some genetic sequences available from the communities around the farm, so it is difficult to know if the mutations they came from the mink on the farm or were already circulating in the community.
The same version mutant of the virus has been reported from mink farms in Europe and people associated with that farm. have also been reported Similar cases of mink-to-human transmission in Denmark, the Netherlands, and elsewhere.
Is virus transmission between animal and human viruses possible?
In general, the transmission of virus from animals to humans is considered rare. Most humans are transmit the virus to each other or to other species. Cases of animals infected with the virus through humans have been reported in various parts of the world.
Most of these animals became infected with the virus after coming into close contact with people who tested positive for COVID-19. It is NOT yet known whether all animals can become infected with the virus after coming into contact with humans.
Can COVID-19 be transmitted from animal to human?
The coronavirus that causes COVID-19 It belongs to a large family of viruses called coronaviruses. According to information available on the CDC website, some coronaviruses cause diseases similar to colds in people, while others cause illness in certain types of animals.
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV) also belong to this family. All of these viruses are zoonotic, which means that they can be transmitted between animals and people. SARS-CoV was transferred from civet cats to humans and MERS-CoV from dromedary camels. In the case of COVID-19, this is the first evidence of animal to human transmission In the USA.
Until now only speculations were made, no concrete conclusions were drawn from them. much more is needed research in this area to understand the complexity of the situation.
What does this mean?
The revelation raises several questions about the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 around the world. Animal-to-human transmission could be the reason behind the explosive outbreak of cases of COVID-19 in the last two years.
From the start of the pandemic, emphasis was placed on prevention of person-to-person transmission, since the possibility of animal-to-person transmission was unknown. It also raises the question about the evolution of the original strain during the period and the upcoming challenges. Much more research is still needed in this area before a conclusion can be drawn.
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