The findings suggest that the coronavirus could be transmitted from humans to the city's rodents at scale. They come as comments from the director of the FBI reignite a fierce debate in the US about the disease's presumed origins - with suspicion once again falling on a Chinese lab.
The peer-reviewed study, published in the American Society for Microbiology's mBio journal, said it was vital to determine whether wild animals could be infected at scale to keep track of how the virus might evolve."To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the first studies to show SARS-CoV-2 variants can cause infections in the wild rat populations in a major US urban area," said lead author Dr Henry Wan.
Scaled up to the total estimated population, that would mean more than 1.3 million infected rats in New York City.Work can help track if virus 'evolving' Dr Wan, who specialises in emerging infectious diseases, said the findings reinforced the joint role that humans and animals can play during a pandemic.
"It's important that we continue to increase our understanding so we can protect both human and animal health," added the professor. "Our findings highlight the need for further monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 in rat populations to determine if the virus is circulating in the animals and evolving into new strains that could pose a risk to humans."
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