Scientists from Texas A&M University found insects like biting flies and cockroaches are not likely to spread the agent of COVID-19 to humans.
The research was published in the Journal of Medical Entomology and was conducted by Gabriel Hamer et al.
Public health experts and officials know much more about the spread of COVID-19, but concerns remained about how the virus spreads indirectly from human to human through contaminated surfaces, animals, or insects.
Insects are known to spread many infectious diseases among humans, so evaluating the role of insects in the potential transmission of SARS-CoV-2 was a high priority in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the study, researchers examined insects in homes with recent human COVID-19 cases, some of which also had dogs and cats actively infected with SARS-CoV-2.
They suspected these were high-risk environments where insects may be able to become contaminated with the virus if they were contacting the infected humans, animals or contaminated surfaces.
Instead, they did not detect evidence of the virus in the sampled insects from these homes.
Previous work by the research team discovered the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from humans to pet dogs and cats were occurring in households with confirmed positive human COVID-19 cases.
More recently, the team has also been studying SARS-CoV-2 transmission among white-tailed deer in Texas.
Previous experimental studies done by other researchers had shown that both the infectious virus and viral RNA were detectable in house flies after being exposed to SARS-CoV-2 in a laboratory setting.
The current study did not find any evidence that these insects were obtaining SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA in natural household settings.
It presents evidence that biting and non-biting flies and roaches are not likely to spread the virus via mechanical transmission or be useful as a surveillance tool to track the transmission of SARS-CoV-2.
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