London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 08, 2025

COVID-19: UK government scientists investigating whether rats could infect humans, official documents reveal

COVID-19: UK government scientists investigating whether rats could infect humans, official documents reveal

Government documents show 70% of England's population are currently having their sewage monitored for COVID.

UK scientists have been investigating whether rats could infect humans with coronavirus - and whether the disease could mutate in wild rodents before being passed to people.

Researchers say laboratory evidence indicates that while rats and mice appear unable to contract the most common forms of COVID, the N501Y spike protein mutation found in several concerning variants "has an increased affinity" for rodents.

A report issued by the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) also found the likelihood that a variant of concern (VOC) that has arisen in humans could infect a rodent and then spread among the animals is high.

But it concluded that the risks of coronavirus adapting in rodents to create a new, worrying strain was low - and that any adaptation to rodent hosts would make it less transmissible among humans.

The report said: "There is a plausible pathway for infection of rodents with new variants of concern from infected humans following contamination of an environment.

"Experimental evidence has shown SARS-CoV-2 with N501Y has increased affinity for lab rodents and there is nothing to suggest the same would not be true for wild rodents.

"While rodents are a possible animal reservoir, the likelihood currently of a VOC emerging as a result of adaptation in rodents is low, and certainly lower than in the human population, as it is expected that adaptation to rodent hosts would reduce the virus' ability to transmit to or between humans."

Minutes of the latest SAGE meeting show 70% of England's population are currently having their sewage monitored for COVID, with samples collected and tested four times a week and data used to identify outbreaks and inform local responses.

Scientists involved in the studies say the risk of viable virus persisting in sewage or household waste was "very low", while conceding that if a rodent was infected this could result in "sustained transmission" among the animals.

However, the report added that considerable doubt remained over the potential for rodents to become "reservoirs for future outbreaks".

"There are key uncertainties around whether the VOC would become established in a rodent population, or would the virus become adapted to the rodent host and would no longer be able to infect a human or establish a new outbreak," it said.

"Therefore there remain some important questions about whether these populations could act as reservoirs for future outbreaks but targeted surveillance in human populations at a higher risk of exposure would answer some of those questions in time."

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×