New York

A new study finds that New York City rats can also be the carriers of the COVID-19 virus. The study was released in mBio, an open-access journal of the American for Microbiology. It concluded that New York rats are susceptible to three Covid variants. 

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In a city with an estimated rat population of 8 million, researchers warned that infected wild rats have “ample opportunities” to interact with humans. 

During the Black Death, a pandemic that affected Europe from 1347-1351, the most widely accepted theory was that the virus was spread to humans through some rodents. A large population of rodents were infested with plague-carrying fleas, which then directly infected a massive human population. 

Now, this possibility of rats carrying the virus which is responsible for COVID-19 can be the new moot point. Though the federal Centred for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has determined that animal-to-human transmission of COVID-19 is rare, noting that in most cases animals are infected by humans. 

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But the study’s principal investigator, Dr Henry Wan, said the new findings highlighted the need for further examination before drawing any conclusions on this matter. The risk of the virus “in rat populations to determine if the virus is circulating in the animals and evolving into new strains that could pose a risk to humans”, said Dr Wan.

Dr Wan is the director of the Center for Influenza and Emerging Infectious Disease at the University of Missouri. He said the study was one of the first to show how COVID-19 variants can cause infections in wild rats in a major US urban area.

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Studies on rats in Hong Kong and Belgium found they were exposed to the virus behind COVID-19, though it is unclear which exact variant. 

The study was published on Thursday and researchers conducted virological studies and genomic sequencing on samples from 79 rats. They captured rats mostly in parks in Brooklyn and with the NYC parks department’s permission, particularly in and around locations that were surrounded by wastewater systems. 

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Of 79 rats, 13 tested positive for COVID-19. Researchers then conducted a virus challenge study and found Alpha, Delta and Omicron variants infections in Sprague Dawley rats. 

“Overall, our work in this space shows that animals can play a role in pandemics that impact humans,” the study authors wrote, “and it’s important that we continue to increase our understanding so we can protect both human and animal health.”

Though humans remain far more likely to catch COVID-19 from other humans than from animals, said Dr J. Scott Weese, director of the Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses at the University of Guelph in Canada. He was not part of the new research but said that the study is a good reminder that the virus continues to spread and it is also a reminder for the future that we need to be approaching things in the broader context, taking animal and human health altogether. 

Other animals like cats, dogs, primates, hippos, deer and anteaters are among those in which COVID-19 infections have been reported earlier. 

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