New Delhi: The role of animal reservoirs in the spread of Covid is still being studied but evidence of zoonosis, or the virus jumping from animals to humans, is growing and scientists are concerned this new frontier could potentially spawn dangerous and difficult to monitor mutants.

While there is no consensus about the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, many scientists believe it likely jumped from bats to humans, either directly or through another species being sold live in a market in Wuhan, China.

Some experts also forward the theory that the highly mutated Omicron variant, which caused a deluge of cases globally, including in India, emerged from animals, potentially rodents, rather than an immune compromised human.

As the virus multiplies in infected hosts, it can mutate slightly, and the worry is that over time, minor genomic tweaks in hundreds or thousands, if not millions, of animals, could eventually add up to changes that make the virus more contagious or deadlier in people, or able to evade treatments and vaccines, US-based public health expert Amita Gupta told PTI in an email interview.

Smaller mutations of SARS-CoV-2 in animals may add up to make the virus more contagious or deadlier in people, said the chief of the Division of Infectious Disease, and professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

The role of wildlife in the global epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 may currently be insignificant but the Covid pandemic is a stark reminder of the close connect between human and animal health. Although the number of people infected with coronavirus variants evolved in animals has not been quantified yet, the evidence of zoonosis is growing.

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed that at least four people in Michigan, US, were infected with a version of the coronavirus observed mostly in minks during the first year of the pandemic.