When a Pomeranian in Hong Kong tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 last week, pets quickly became part of the coronavirus conversation. The case raised the alarming possibility that pets could become part of the transmission chain for the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, which could potentially harm both them and us. But many questions remain about this possibility and how best to respond.
As Hong Kong's Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) clarified in a reality sheet a week ago, the Pomeranian tried "feebly positive" for the infection in touchy tests that identified viral RNA in nose and mouth tests. "The canine has a low-level of contamination and it is probably going to be an instance of human-to-creature transmission," AFCD composed. "We emphatically prompt that mammalian pet creatures including mutts and felines from families with … contaminated people ought to be put under isolate … to defend open and creature wellbeing."
Science conversed with Shelley Rankin, a microbiologist at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, Philadelphia, about the dangers of COVID-19 disease in pets. Her lab is a piece of the U.S. Nourishment and Drug Administration's Veterinary Laboratory Investigation and Response Network, a group of veterinary analytic labs that could help decide the effect of the pandemic on pets and different creatures. This meeting has been altered for clearness and length.
A: SARS-CoV-2 spreads from humans to humans. There is no research to support human to animal spread at this time. Samples from the Hong Kong dog had a small number of virus particles present. In an animal with no clinical signs of disease, it’s hard to say what this means. It was a single case, and we learned that we need to do a lot more research into the potential of human SARS-CoV-2 to infect animals.
That said, cats and dogs are mammals too. They have many of the same types of receptors on their cells that we do. So the virus could theoretically attach to these receptors. But will it enter their cells and replicate? Probably not.
In any case, individuals tainted with SARS-CoV-2 should constrain contact with their pets. Wash your hands, and don't let them lick you on the face. On the off chance that the infection is in your discharges, and there's any capability of transmission, these are ways it could be transmitted.
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