From lions and tigers to big hairy armadillos, a growing number of animals have been infected with the coronavirus. Here’s what we’ve learned
But testing of wild animals is infrequent, and COVID-19 has likely impacted many more species, which emerging research is beginning to show. “I think the spread to wildlife animals is much wider than previously thought,” saysHow does SARS-CoV-2 infect such a big range of species, and what are the impacts?A major reason lies in a complicated receptor found in all mammals, called ACE-2. This receptor plays an important role in regulating blood pressure and other physiological functions.
Once the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 enters the body, it begins infecting host cells by binding to the ACE-2 receptor, which is widespread in the upper airways and sinuses of humans and many other mammals. The ACE-2 receptor’s physical structure varies relatively little across vertebrate species compared with other similar proteins, says, a virologist at Yale University. Even so, there are enough small variations that scientists initially thought some mammals would be very unlikely to be infected.
But that thinking has changed as animals initially thought to be less susceptible have proven anything but. It now appears that many if not most mammalian ACE-2 receptors are susceptible and don’t represent a limiting factor for the virus., a professor at University of Pennsylvania’s School of Medicine who studies host-microbe interactions.
Instead, there are likely many other factors at play that determine vulnerability, the details of which remain almost totally unknown.We already know that the virus can infect and spread within wild mink and white-tailed deer—and for both species, there is at least
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