Researchers track spread of COVID-19 in wild animals

By Associated Press |
March 30, 2022 
| Updated on  March 30, 2022 at 1:33 pm

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  ASSOCIATED PRESS

  The solar rises over icy Lake Superior in Grand Marais, Minn., on March 3.

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  ASSOCIATED PRESS

  The solar begins to set over Hollow Rock on frozen Lake Superior in Grand Portage, Minn. on March 3.

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  ASSOCIATED PRESS

  Todd Kautz, a post-doctoral researcher from the State University of New York, lies on his stomach to take organic samples from a hibernating bear in its den as a colleague holds his toes in Grand Portage, Minn. on March 2. This contains testing the younger black bear for the coronavirus.

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  ASSOCIATED PRESS

  A bear hibernates in a den in Grand Portage, Minn. on March 2. Biologists from the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa are monitoring the animals and taking organic samples, together with a COVID-19 swab, from bears and different mammals for analysis. In order to entry the bear dens, which they discover by GPS collars on the bears, researchers must generally dig down by many toes of snow after which stick the higher half of their our bodies into the dens with the hibernating bear inside to sedate the animals additional in order that the bears do not get up whereas they’re taking the organic samples.

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  ASSOCIATED PRESS

  The solar units behind an deserted construction on frozen Lake Superior off of Highway 61 between Grand Marais and Grand Portage, Minn. on March 3.

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  Frank Manthey follows E.J. Isaac and Roger Deschampe Jr. into the Grand Portage, Minn. woods on March 2, to examine traps they set to catch deer for scientific analysis for the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. One of the samples they take from the deer is a COVID-19 swab.

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  ASSOCIATED PRESS

  E.J. Isaac, fish and wildlife biologist for the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, stands over an empty deer lure in Grand Portage, Minn. on March 1. He and his staff are catching deer in order to take organic samples to ship to scientists for analysis. One of the samples he takes is testing for COVID-19 in the animals.

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  ASSOCIATED PRESS

  E.J. Isaac, Roger Deschampe Jr., and Frank Manthey, who work in useful resource administration for the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, take organic samples from a deer they caught in a Clover lure on March 2, in Grand Portage, Minn.. These samples, together with a COVID-19 check on the animal, will probably be despatched to scientists for analysis.

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  ASSOCIATED PRESS

  A younger buck peeks out from below a blanket whereas in a Clover deer lure. A wildlife staff is testing the animal for the coronavirus and taking different organic samples in Grand Portage, Minn. on March 2. The COVID-19 virus has been confirmed in wildlife in at the very least 24 U.S. states, together with Minnesota. Recently, an early Canadian examine confirmed somebody in close by Ontario seemingly contracted a extremely mutated pressure from a deer.

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  ASSOCIATED PRESS

  A wildlife staff covers a younger buck’s head with a fabric to assist calm it earlier than testing the deer for the coronavirus and taking different organic samples in Grand Portage, Minn. on Wednesday, March 2. Scientists are involved that the COVID-19 virus may evolve inside animal populations – probably spawning harmful viral mutants that might bounce again to folks, spread amongst us and reignite what for now looks like a waning disaster.

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  ASSOCIATED PRESS

  E.J. Isaac, fish and wildlife biologist for the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, swabs a younger buck for the coronavirus in Grand Portage, Minn. on March 2. Isaac expects animal COVID-19 infections to extend with the beginning of spring, as bears wake from hibernation and deer and wolves roam to completely different areas.

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  ASSOCIATED PRESS

  E.J. Isaac, fish and wildlife biologist for the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, locations a swab right into a vial after testing a younger buck for the coronavirus in Grand Portage, Minn. on March 2. “If we consider that there are many species and they’re all intermingling to some extent, their patterns and their movements can exponentially increase the amount of transmission that could occur,” Isaac says.

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  ASSOCIATED PRESS

  A helicopter lifts off in Grand Portage, Minn., carrying Seth Moore, director of biology and setting for the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, and a staff from the wildlife seize firm Heliwild. The staff searches for deer and moose from the air as half of an effort to check wildlife for the coronavirus and take different organic samples. Tuesday, March 1.

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