MINNEAPOLIS – A University of Minnesota veterinary professor who studies infectious diseases said there is no evidence of transmission from deer to people. Jeff Bender acknowledged, however, that an Iowa study that found 80% of harvested deer were infected was troubling. “It raises some really interesting questions about how and why?” Bender said in an interview with television station WCCO. “We’ve been unfortunately surprised with SARS-Coronavirus and COVID over the past 1-1/2 year so any more surprises are not really needed right now.” Bender noted that concern about spillover of the virus across species isn’t new. He noted Danish studies that failed to produce enough data to support the possibility that mink could drive widespread human infection. Even so, Bender said, more studies on deer are in order. A worst case scenario, he said, would be if deer become a reservoir for the virus to mutate and the virus then enters the human population in yet another a new and perhaps more virulent form.
Bender. More research needed on possible deer-to-human Covid infection.
Advice to hunters
Until more is figured out about the presence of Covid in Minnesota’s deer herd, Bender advised hunters to take their usual precautions:
> Wash your hands.
> Use gloves when processing animals.
> Cook the meat thoroughly.