CORVALLIS, Ore. Oregon State University has detected several mutant strains of COVID-19 in Oregon, including the highly contagious British strain in one Bend sample.
The Bend wastewater sample was found on 22 December and genetic sequencing carried out by OSU revealed the British tribe on 21 January.
“OHA is working closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and partners across the country to set up COVID-19 sequence monitoring to track the evolution of virus mutations over time. All viruses mutate and these variants are not unexpected, ”said dr. Melissa Sutton, medical director of respiratory viral pathogens, said.
“We will see COVID-19 variants increase in abundance through our population over time and the emergence of a new variant is not necessarily worrying. However, monitoring of variants is critical to our understanding of disease transmission, disease severity, ability to test, vaccine effectiveness and resistance to treatment, ‘she said.
Since last year, the University’s Center for Genome Research and Biocomputing has performed genetic sequencing of all positive COVID-19 samples obtained through TRACE testing of individuals and wastewater from OSU campuses and Oregon communities.
In recent weeks, researchers have been looking for evidence of variants of SARS-CoV-2, particularly the UK, South African and Brazilian variants, which are more contagious than common variants of the virus.
“With the advent of the new variants, it is becoming more important to understand which variants are circulating among communities,” said Brett Tyler, director of the Genome Center.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have stepped up monitoring of mutant stains nationwide as agency experts worry that the mutant strains could eventually evade the vaccine currently being spread, especially if there are delays in giving people the second dose of vaccine. required strong immunity. As current mutants from the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil are more contagious and spread faster, contact detection should be done quickly to prevent further spread.
As of Monday, the OSU laboratory has completed genetic sequencing on more than 1,100 samples – 936 wastewater samples and 174 individual samples from the TRACE OSU and TRACE community surveys across the state. In Oregon, only OSU and OHSU in Portland are currently engaged in genetic sequencing of viral samples.
Five individuals tested on the OSU’s Corvallis campus were positive for the “L452R” mutant strain of COVID-19. The tribe was also present in the wastewater samples of the campus.
“This species is not the biggest problem, just like the other three (UK, South African and Brazilian variants), but it has spread widely in Southern California and has been linked to recent major outbreaks in Santa Clara County,” he said. Tyler said.
As the country enters the vaccination phase of the pandemic, it will become more important to know which viral strains are circulating, as this could affect the effectiveness of the vaccine, said Tyler Radniecki, an associate professor of engineering at OSU, and took the lead on the sampling of waste water from TRACE.
“The wider the pandemic, the more genetic variation we see in the virus, and some variations in this phase of the pandemic could quite possibly matter,” Radniecki said.
“Wastewater sampling is particularly powerful because of its wide range,” Tyler said. “Each sample is a survey of an entire community, or subdivision of a community, which is far more cost-effective than testing people one by one.”
OHA will work with OSU to expand its wastewater monitoring to every country across the country, Radniecki said. All of these sites’ samples will be followed up weekly.