Province records 1st confirmed case of COVID-19 in an animal
CBC
New Brunswick has its first confirmed case of the virus that causes COVID-19 in an animal.
SARS-CoV-2 was detected in a free-ranging white-tailed deer in the Saint John region, Environment Canada announced on social media Wednesday.
The case was confirmed in January, according to the Canadian Animal Health Surveillance System, a division of the National Farmed Animal Health and Welfare Council.
A few months ago, New Brunswick sent 40 nasal samples taken from hunted white-tailed deer to a federal lab in Saskatoon.
The deer were hunted between Nov. 10 and 19 near Saint John and Hampton.
As of a couple of weeks ago, none had tested positive, according to analysis by Environment and Climate Change Canada's wildlife health laboratory.
SARS-CoV-2 has now been detected in white-tailed deer in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, B.C., Ontario and Quebec, according to the surveillance system's website.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease has confirmed 56 cases of SARS-CoV-2 in animals across the country since October 2020, the website shows.
Forty of them have been in wildlife, 13 in "companion animals," such as dogs and cats, and three have involved mink farms.
"#COVID19 remains largely a disease of human concern and typically spreads from human to human," Environment Canada posted on Twitter Wednesday.
"Adhering to public health advice and getting fully vaccinated are key ways to protect against the virus."
According to the World Organisation for Animal Health, the only confirmed reports of COVID-19 spreading from animals to people have been from mink farms. In these situations, workers have infected mink, and then mink have spread the virus back to other people.
But recent reports have identified possible animal-to-human transmission from hamsters in Hong Kong and suspected animal-to-human transmission from a deer in Ontario.
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