Why Is Illinois Planning To Test Deer For COVID-19?

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) confirmed on Monday that the department will work with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to test up to 1,000 deer for the virus between now and March 2022.

My first thought upon hearing this was "is this coronavirus pandemic causing problems in the woods?"

Getty Images

There's Been A Pretty Large COVID-19 Outbreak Among Deer In Several States

The IDNR's confirmation of the planned COVID-19 deer testing comes about after testing earlier in the year in Illinois found that about 7% of the deer population was infected with COVID-19, and after testing of the deer populations in Iowa, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New York found that deer in those states had even worse outbreaks.

Patch.com:

Similar tests from last year in Iowa showed the virus spreading rapidly in local deer populations. In a seven-week period from last Thanksgiving to January, about 82.5 percent of deer tested in Iowa were positive for the virus, according to one news report.
Eric Schauber, a biologist at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, told WCIS in August that 7 percent of deer tested in Illinois had antibodies for the virus.

Getty Images

Does COVID-19 Affect Deer In The Same Way It Does Human Beings?

That's the strange and interesting part about this planned testing. According to the IDNR, researchers remain unclear on whether or not deer manifest the same, or similar symptoms that humans do, if any at all. There is also no evidence that deer can spread COVID-19 to humans, either.

Researchers are trying to find out if deer can harbor COVID-19 and allow it to survive and mutate, if deer can spread it to domestic animals, where deer caught COVID-19 to begin with, and whether deer could produce new variants.

Click here for the full story from CapitolFax

LOOK: Stunning animal photos from around the world

From grazing Tibetan antelope to migrating monarch butterflies, these 50 photos of wildlife around the world capture the staggering grace of the animal kingdom. The forthcoming gallery runs sequentially from air to land to water, and focuses on birds, land mammals, aquatic life, and insects as they work in pairs or groups, or sometimes all on their own.

LOOK: Here are the pets banned in each state

Because the regulation of exotic animals is left to states, some organizations, including The Humane Society of the United States, advocate for federal, standardized legislation that would ban owning large cats, bears, primates, and large poisonous snakes as pets.

Read on to see which pets are banned in your home state, as well as across the nation.