(FOX 9) - When researchers in Iowa first began testing deer for COVID-19 in April of 2020, they didn’t find any signs of the virus for months.
That changed in the fall when the first positives popped up in September and October.Then in a seven-week period from just before Thanksgiving until January 10, 82.5% of the deer tested positive, signs that it was spreading rapidly among white-tailed deer.The research by Penn State and the Iowa DNR is still in peer review, but they write it’s the first to show evidence of widespread dissemination of COVID-19 in wildlife and that it shows that deer have the potential to be a "major reservoir host" for the virus.The threat for deer hunters is minimal.