COLUMBUS, Ohio – Wild white-tailed deer in Ohio are the first in the world confirmed to be infected with COVID-19, according to the USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL).

“The United States Department of Agriculture’s NVSL today announced confirmation of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) in wild white-tailed deer in Ohio,” the USDA said in a news release. “These are the first deer confirmed with the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide.”

Samples from the deer tested positive at The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine, and the cases were confirmed at NVSL.

This finding is not unexpected as previous studies have shown that some wild white-tailed deer have antibodies to the virus, said Lyndsay Cole, USDA assistant director of public affairs for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. There have been no reports of deer showing clinical signs of the virus.

“The samples were collected between January and March 2021 through active deer management strategies,” said Andrew Bowman, associate professor for OSU’s Department of Veterinary Preventive Medicine. “None of them were noted as ill by the sample-collectors. No one would have known anything if we hadn’t collected samples from them. These were part of deer culls strategies for population management.”

Such testing is required for certain animal diseases in the United States to comply with national and international reporting procedures. The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) considers SARS-CoV-2 an emerging disease. Therefore, USDA must report confirmed animal infections in the United States to the OIE.

The OIE is based in Paris, France, and serves as the international coordinating body for animal health worldwide, similar to what the World Health Organization is on the human side, Cole said.

“Per our testing protocol, any animal that came up positive needed to be reported to the federal government, and they tested those samples to confirm our findings,” Bowman said. “That’s about all we know at this time. It was an internationally reportable event, finding the virus in the species. That’s why USDA put it out as a press release. We really don’t know a whole lot. More research is needed.”

Studies show that the virus is transmissible in white-tailed deer, so OSU’s finding isn’t that unexpected, Bowman said. But this is the first documented time that it has happened in nature.

A recent study identified antibodies (rather than the virus itself) in wild deer from four states (New York, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Illinois), Cole said.

“We had the hints that it was possible, and then we got those positive swabs – that’s what made the headlines,” he said. “We might have been the only ones looking in the way that we were looking.”

The study was originally funded at OSU because the Infectious Disease Institute was trying to understand the potential environmental reservoirs, Bowman said. As the pandemic started, they were looking where else the virus might be.

“We tested lots of animal species, got lots of negatives,” Bowman said. “This one caught our attention because there was a positive. We’ve seen other species being reported, cats dogs, minks, so there have been other species that the virus has gotten into; it’s trying to understand what does that mean for animal health and public health-wise in the future. There are lots more questions to answer.”

There is no evidence that humans can get COVID-19 by preparing or eating food, including wild hunted game meat, Cole said. CDC has guidance for contact with wildlife on its website, www.cdc.gov.