According to the Minister of agriculture of the Netherlands Carola Schouten, quoted by Reuters, the dog was infected by its owner. Schouten addressed a special message to the Parliament. “It is important that pet owners followed advice: patients with COVID-19 should, as a precaution to avoid contact with their animals,” said Schouten in circulation to deputies. “If you’re sick, don’t hug your cat or dog,” said the Minister.
Eight-year-old American bulldog, the owner has discovered COVID-19, was taken to a veterinary clinic in the Netherlands because of serious breathing problems on April 30. After the conducted two-week treatment dogs blood test showed that she had developed antibodies to the virus.
at the same time it became known about the infection of three cats in the Netherlands. This case is also interesting. Schouten reported that several mink on the farm in the South of the country was infected with the coronavirus. Thus the reason for the infection has not been established. According to the Minister, 11 cats that lived near the farm were tested for COVID-19. It turned out, three of them were found antibodies to the virus: it shows that they, like the bulldog, you were over him. Subsequent tests have not tested positive for the coronavirus. Although the analysis confirms that people with COVID-19 can infect dogs, this probability is extremely small, said Arjan of Stegeman, veterinary epidemiologist from Utrecht University in the Netherlands.
Recall that back in March, the world health organization said there is no evidence that the dog, cat or any pet can transmit COVID-19. Moreover, experts on infectious diseases at first believed that carriers of the novel coronavirus can be cats, mink and hamsters, but not dogs and other Pets.
But then all over the world from time to time been reported on infected animals COVID-19. So, in late March a test for coronavirus was positive in domestic cat in Hong Kong. COVID-19 first found the owner of the animal. It soon became clear that infected people often took the cat in his arms and leaning against her face. Coronavirus in April was found in a cat in Belgium. Four tigers and three lions at the Bronx zoo in new York were also detected positive for coronavirus. The study showed that some felines can transmit COVID-19 other cats without showing symptoms.
Finally, two dogs in Hong Kong – Spitz and a German shepherd were recorded positive when sampling at COVID-19. Dogs have also experienced breathing problems. Analysis of viral genetic sequences of these dogs showed that they are identical ��iakovym available to infected people. “Researchers suspected that the infection was transferred from owners to dogs, and direct genomic linkage confirms it,” said Malik Peiris, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong. He led the study, whose results were published Thursday in the journal Nature 1. It did not reveal any evidence that dogs can transmit the infection to other dogs or people. However, researchers are reminded that SARS-CoV-2 probably originated from bats and was transmitted to humans through a kind of “animal mediation”, which remains unknown. “The virus seems to have a fairly wide range of hosts. Dogs, cats and other closely related mammal species can form a viral bridge between bats and people,” concluded Peiris.
According to jürgen RICHT, a veterinary virologist from the University of Kansas, probably in the near future will require special diagnostic kits for testing animals. He expressed concern that reports of infected cats and dogs can lead to the fact that people abandon their Pets like this happened in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where there was an outbreak of the disease. “The danger we face is that people are nervous when they hear that Pets can be virus carriers, and decide to get rid of them,” said RICHT.
