For postdoctoral researcher Kautz and a team of other wildlife experts, monitoring coronavirus means icy temperatures, icy roads, walking through deep snow and uncomfortably approaching potentially dangerous wildlife.
They test bears, elk, deer and wolves at a Native American shelter in the far north forest, about 5 miles from Canada.  Like researchers around the world, they are trying to figure out how, how much and where wildlife transmits the virus.
Scientists worry that the virus could spread to animal populations, creating potentially dangerous viral mutations that could jump back to humans, spread among us and rekindle what some people currently see as a declining crisis.
The coronavirus pandemic has served as a striking and tragic example of how closely animal health and human health are linked.  Although the origin of the virus has not been proven, many scientists say it was most likely transmitted from bats to humans, either directly or through other species sold live in Wuhan, China.
And now the virus has been confirmed in the wild in at least 24 US states, including Minnesota.  Recently, an early Canadian study showed that someone in nearby Ontario was most likely infected by a highly mutated strain from a deer.
“If the virus can settle in a wildlife tank, it will always be out there threatening to spread again to the human population,” said University of Minnesota researcher Matthew Aliota, who works with the Grand Portage Reservation team.
EJ Isaac, a fish and wildlife biologist for the reservation hosted by Grand Portage Ojibwe, said he expects the bet to increase even more with the onset of spring as bears wake up from hibernation and deer and wolves roam in different areas.
“If we consider that there are many species and everything is mixed to some degree, their patterns and movements can exponentially increase the amount of transmission that could occur,” he said.


IN NATURE 
Their research aims to prevent such unwanted surprises.  But it carries its own risks.
Seth Moore, who heads the biology and environment department, is about to be bitten by a wolf.
And sometimes they work with a crew from the Texas-based Heliwild company to capture animals from the air.  On a cold late winter afternoon, the men boarded a small helicopter with no side doors hovering above the tops of the trees.  Flying low, they quickly spotted a deer in a forest glade.  They aimed the animal from the air with a net weapon and threw Moore.
The wind was blowing in his face as he worked in deep snow to quickly clear the deer’s nose for COVID, put on a watch collar and collect blood and other biological samples for different research.
Men capture moose in much the same way, using darts instead of nets.  They trap wolves and deer either from the air or from the ground and trap bears on the ground.
They knew about the young male bear they had recently tried because they had already watched it.  To reach the hideout, they had to pick up snowmobiles at the bottom of a hill and then walk down a narrow, winding path with snowshoes.
When Coates was partially dragged into the cave, a colleague held his legs to pull him out quickly if needed.  The team also gave the animal one drug to keep it asleep and another later to counteract the effects of the former.
To minimize the risk of animal exposure to COVID, men are fully vaccinated, boosted, and tested frequently.
The day after the bear was tested, Isaac packed their samples to send to Aliota’s lab in St. Paul.  The veterinary and biomedical researcher hopes to find out not only which animals are infected but also whether some animals act as “bridge species” to carry it to others.  The test can later be extended to red foxes and raccoons.
It is also possible that the virus has not reached this remote location – yet.  Since it is already circulating in the Minnesota desert and nearby states, Aliota said it is only a matter of time.


LOOKING FOR MUTATIONS 
Close contact between humans and animals allowed the virus to overcome embedded barriers to spreading between species.
In order to infect any living thing, the virus must enter its cells, which is not always easy.  Virology expert David O’Connor likens the process of opening a “lock” to the “key” of the virus’s protein.
“Different species have locks that look different, and some of these locks are not going to be key-based,” said the University of Wisconsin-Madison scientist.
But other locks are similar enough for the virus to enter an animal’s cells and make copies of itself.  As it happens, it can mutate randomly and still have a key that fits the human lock.  This allows it to jump back to humans through close contact with live animals, scientists believe.
Although spillback is rare, it only takes one person to bring a mutated virus into the human kingdom.
Some believe that the highly mutated Omicron variant originated from an animal and not from a human with a reduced immunity, as many believe.  University of Missouri virologist Marc Johnson is one of them and now sees animals as “a possible source of pi,” the Greek letter that could be used to identify the next dangerous variant of the coronavirus.
Johnson and his colleagues found strange genera of coronavirus in New York sewers with mutations that are rarely found elsewhere, which he believes came from animals, possibly rodents.
What scientists are most concerned about is that current or future variants could be consolidated and widely propagated within a type of reservoir.
One possibility: a deer with a white tail.  Scientists discovered the coronavirus in one-third of deer tested in Iowa between September 2020 and January 2021. Others found antibodies to COVID-19 in one-third of deer tested in Illinois, Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania.  Infected deer generally have no symptoms.  Experiments on many other wildlife were limited or absent.
“It is possible that the virus is already circulating in many animals,” said Suresh Kuchipudi, a virologist at Pennsylvania State University who co-authored the Iowa Deer Study.  If not monitored, the virus could leave people “completely blind,” he said.


CAN IT STOP? 
Ultimately, experts say the only way to stop viruses from jumping back and forth between animals and humans – by spreading this pandemic or triggering a new one – is to tackle major problems such as habitat destruction and illegal wildlife sales.
“We are encroaching on animal habitats like we have never done in history,” Aliota said.  “The incidence of wildlife transmission to humans, unfortunately, I believe will increase in both frequency and amplitude.”
To combat this threat, three international organizations – the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Organization for Animal Health and the World Health Organization – are urging countries to make COVID surveillance of animals a priority.
At Grand Portage, Aliota partners continue to do their part by testing as many animals as they can catch.
With the frozen Lake Superior glistening through the evergreens, Isaac slid his hand under the net of a deer trap.  A colleague hugging the animal lifted his head from the snowy ground so that Isaac could pull out his nostrils.
The young back tilted his head forward for a moment, but remained motionless enough for Isaac to get what he needed.
“Very nice,” said his colleague as Isaac put the sample in a vial.
When they were done, they gently lifted the trap to let the deer go.  It bordered on the vast forest without looking back, lost in the snowy shadows.
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The Associated Press Department of Health and Science receives support from the Science Education Department of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.  The AP is solely responsible for all content.