EXTENSIVE SARS-COV-2 GENOMIC SURVEY SUPPORTING FARMED WHITE TAILED DEER HEALTH

Since late 2019, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has swept around the world leaving millions of dead and diseased humans in its wake. While the specific zoonotic origin of this virus has yet to be identified, multiple new animal reservoirs have become established. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus, "WTD") in North America is one of the most conspicuous secondary zoonotic SARS-CoV-2 reservoirs, with very high seroprevalence and viral PCR testing positivity rates across North America. Furthermore, recent studies have demonstrated that WTD are highly susceptible to infection and can transmit SARS-CoV-2 by contact. Genomic surveillance of wild WTD populations revealed viral variants unique to these populations, and also allowed the potential detection of at least one "spillback" transmission event from a deer to a human. Still, genomic sequencing from WTD is lacking and hampers our ability to understand chains of transmission within farmed WTD populations and between captive and wild WTD or other conspecific animals. The Extensive Deer Genomic Surveillance (EDGeS) Project will conduct large-scale SARS-CoV-2 testing and whole genome sequencing (WGS) in farmed and wild WTD to improve our understanding of SARS-CoV-2 impacts on farmed animal health and towards future countermeasure development. The goal of this effort is to help identify routes of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in WTD and provide genomic information necessary for future animal coronavirus therapy or vaccine countermeasures. Our results aim to help protect farmed WTD and humans that interact with them, and develop infrastructure to respond to unforeseen developments to the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic as well as future zoonotic disease outbreaks impacting livestock in the United States.