COVID-19 was not found in wildlife during the second wave of the epidemic but has been found in the wastewater of seven cities, according to research by the Croatian Veterinary Institute Zagreb.

The head of the Virology Department, Lorena Jemersic, said on Tuesday the findings confirmed that during and after the second wave the virus was not transmitted among wildlife such as wild boars, foxes, jackals and yellow-legged gulls, which feed on waste, nor among 32 targeted species at the Zagreb ZOO.

Existing variants not easily transmitted from humans to wildlife

That shows that the existing variants are not easily transmitted from humans to wildlife and that the measures instituted by the Zagreb ZOO have been enough to protect the animals there, she said.

The research shows that yellow-legged gulls which live at Jakusevec near Zagreb, the biggest landfill in the country, do not transmit the virus nor pose a public health hazard, although they do feed on waste.

Jemersic said the research encompassed foxes and jackals because they are canidae susceptible to coronavirus. Wild boars are incubators for recombining different variants and have proteins which allow the virus to attach to receptors, she added.

The research on the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in animals was done because some other beta coronaviruses in humans have been mediated by third species. For example MERS, which a camel transmitted to a human after being infected by a bat.

When COVID-19 appeared, it was believed that an animal was involved in the transmission of the virus from bats to humans but no such animal has been found, Jemersic said.

The research also encompassed a mixed bat colony in a cave in Sibenik-Knin County given that bats are natural reservoirs of various coronaviruses.

The head of the institute’s Rabies and General Virology Laboratory, Ivana Lojkic, said a coronavirus found in bats was 12% different from SARS-CoV-2.

The antibody results should be verified by additional testing because the tests in use evidently show the presence of antibodies and viruses similar to SARS and SARS-CoV-2, she added.