Oh, deer! White-tailed deer found to have Covid-19 antibodies.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) recently discovered that wild white-tailed deer in four states - Illinois, Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania - were exposed to SARS-CoV-2. None showed signs of critical illness. None were wearing masks. The positive cases represented 33% of the 481 samples collected from January 2020 through 2021.

According to the report, "The finding that wild white-tailed deer have been exposed to SARS-CoV-2 is not unexpected given that white-tailed deer are susceptible to the virus, are abundant in the United States, often come into close contact with people, and that, more than 114 million Americans are estimated to have been infected with COVID-19, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)."

Read more about Covid-19 in white-tailed deer.