Sara and Maggie return from a successful trapping trip

Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Sara Weinstein and graduate student Maggie Doolin just returned from a week-long field trip sampling Peromyscus in central Utah. The two are spearheading a pilot project searching for SARS-CoV-2 spillover into wildlife in Utah. Cricetid rodents have been shown to be competent hosts for the virus and are potential reservoir hosts for future transmission of new variants back to humans. Peromyscus spp, and especially the deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) are extremely abundant across North America, and are a risk for respiratory virus transmission as shown by their vectoring hantavirus infections (see past Dearing Lab work!) to humans. This project is a collaboration between the Dearing Lab and the Schountz Lab at Colorado State University, where the 72 blood samples that Maggie and Sara collected will soon be processed. We’ll keep everyone posted!

Sara loaded down with traps, heading down to our BLM land trap site.

Sara (L) and Maggie (R) in powered air purifying respirators and isolation gowns, ready to work with potentially infectious rodents.