CORVALLIS, Oregon. – Oregon State University detected several mutant strains of COVID-19 in Oregon, including the highly contagious strain from the UK in a Bend sample.
The Bend wastewater sample was found on December 22, and genetic sequencing conducted by OSU revealed the UK strain on January 21.
“OHA is rapidly working with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and partners across the state to build COVID-19 sequencing surveillance 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 at OHA.
“We will see the variants of COVID-19 increase and decrease in abundance in our population over time and the appearance of a new variant is not necessarily a cause for alarm. However, monitoring for variants is critical to our understanding of disease transmission, disease severity, ability to evade testing, vaccine effectiveness and resistance to treatment, ”she said.
Since last spring, the university’s Genome and Biocomputing Research Center has been carrying out genetic sequencing on all positive COVID-19 samples obtained from 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, especially variants in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil, which have proved to be more contagious than common variants of the virus.
“With the arrival of the new variants, being able to understand which variants are circulating between communities is becoming increasingly important,” said Brett Tyler, director of the genome center.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have increased their monitoring of mutant patches across the country, as agency experts are concerned that mutant strains may eventually escape the vaccine currently being distributed, especially if there are delays in giving people a second dose. vaccine needed to achieve strong immunity. Because current mutants in the UK, South Africa and Brazil are more contagious and spread more quickly, contact tracking will need to be quick to prevent further spread.
On Monday, the OSU laboratory completed the genetic sequencing of more than 1,100 samples – 936 samples of wastewater and 174 individual samples from the TRACE OSU and TRACE Community surveys across the state. In Oregon, only OSU and OHSU in Portland are performing genetic sequencing on viral samples.
Five individuals tested on the OSU Corvallis campus were positive for the COVID-19 mutant strain “L452R”. The strain was also present in campus wastewater samples.
“This strain is not of the greatest concern, like the other three (variants from the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil), but it has spread widely in southern California and has been associated with some major recent outbreaks in Santa Clara County,” he said. Tyler.
As the country enters the pandemic vaccination phase, knowing exactly which viral strains are circulating will become more important as they can affect the effectiveness of the vaccine, said Tyler Radniecki, an associate professor of engineering at OSU and a leader in water sampling. TRACE residuals.
“The wider the pandemic becomes, the more genetic variation we see in the virus, and some variations at this stage of the pandemic can be important,” said Radniecki.
“Wastewater sampling is particularly powerful because of its broad scope,” said Tyler. “Each sample represents a survey of an entire community, or subsection of a community, which is much more economical than testing people one by one.”
OHA will partner with OSU to expand its wastewater surveillance to all counties across the state, said Radniecki. All samples from these sites will be sequenced weekly.