New York City rats can carry Covid variants, new study finds

New York City rats may be renowned for carrying pizza through the subway but according to a new study, they can also carry the virus behind Covid-19.

The study released on Thursday in mBio, an open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology, concluded that New York rats among a population of roughly 8 million are susceptible to three Covid variants.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has determined that animal-to-human transmission of Covid-19 is rare, noting that in most cases animals are infected by humans.

Studies of rats in Hong Kong and Belgium found they were exposed to the virus behind Covid-19, though it is unclear which variant.

In the New York study, researchers conducted virological studies and genomic sequencing on samples from 79 rats.

Of the rats studied, 13 tested positive for Covid-19. Researchers then conducted a virus challenge study and found that Alpha, Delta and Omicron variants caused infections in Sprague Dawley rats.