Intra and interspecies interaction between mass confined animals and their handlers : an ideal reservoir for Coronavirus evolution

Abstract

Multiple variants of the virus responsible for COVID-19 have been detected since the pandemic started, however a miniscule minority succeed in persisting and successfully promulgating infection in humans. A research group in Basel, Switzerland has detected a persistent mutant designated as 20A.EU1 of COVID-19, which has spread extensively in the European Continent. The initial stages of the variant appear to have originated in the North East region of Spain and two outbreaks of infection with this variant were detected in farmers coming from the provinces of Aragon and Catalonia in late June 2020. Later in July, more than 100,000 minks in the Spanish North East were culled as they were found to be infected by SARS-CoV-2. There is the possibility that the mass confinement of infected animals resulted in high viral reproduction rates increasing the risk for the development of mutants, which through crossing-over and natural selection persisted to become pathogenic in humans.