2 ms·

Does the collective mass matter? Seems like the important number would be the number of mammals, not their mass.

• dredmorbius 5y ago
  Biomass is a rough proxy for prevalence. There are remarkably few mamallian species with > 1m population. Virtually all are grazing animals, sea mammals, or rodents. I'm not sure what species SARS-COV-2 is compatible with, though I've mostly heard of animals > 5kg mass (e.g., domesticated cats, dogs, deer, wildcats), with the very notable exception of bats. The virus has been detected in 20--40% of sampled deer in the US in multiple states, which is a particularly bad sign. If it's gained foothold in rodent populations ... well, it could be around for a while. From April of 2021: Results obtained from experimental studies indicate that animal species such as cats, ferrets, raccoon dogs, cynomolgus macaques, rhesus macaques, white-tailed deer, rabbits, Egyptian fruit bats, and Syrian hamsters are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection, and that cat-to-cat and ferret-to-ferret transmission can take place via contact and air. However, natural infections of SARS-CoV-2 have been reported only in pet dogs and cats, tigers, lions, snow leopards, pumas, and gorillas at zoos, and farmed mink and ferrets. Even though human-to-animal spillover has been reported at several instances, SARS-CoV-2 transmission from animals-to-humans has only been reported from mink-to-humans in mink farms. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8128218/?report=classic https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8128218/?report... That's not to say that broader transmission isn't possible (the abstract doesn't mention deer, and I'm aware they're found to be infected). The science is still being established.