Are our pets and other animals actually at risk for Covid-19 or is this just social media influence?

At the beginning of the pandemic, one of the things we as a society began to worry about were its effects on our pets and being able to spread this disease from human to animal and vice versa. Could just touching the pet of an infected individual infect us or could our pets suffer from COVID-19 in a similar way? Would they be just as sick? If they can get sick, what treatment options would provide to our animals and other animals that are in captivity?

Early Concerns with Pets

            At the beginning of the pandemic, many people went to into a panic on how they and those around them would be affected by this new disease. One concern that many people panicked about was how their pets would be affected. With COVID-19 just beginning to spread around the world, there was very little known on how it spread, and many symptoms were unknown. The general public began to panic as a 17-year-old dog tested positive in Hong Kong and died two weeks later, but “the cause of death remains unknown because the owner did not consent to post-mortem examination” (Parry). The dog had been tested after its owner was sick, but with no cause of death it was uncertain that COVID-19 was the cause of death. This was still enough to cause panic and fear to spread through the general public.

            Unfortunately, early concerns lead to many cases of animal abuse. To prevent animals from spreading COVID-19 to people many animals were killed, including people’s pets. Others abandoned their pets or were unable to properly care from their pets due to unemployment. Even without knowing that animals could spread this new disease, they took the abuse from panic.

Animals as Vectors

            COVID-19 spread to humans using an animal as a vector, it is speculated that it originated from a bat in China. COVID-19 and other strands of coronavirus are considered to be a zoonotic disease, which is a disease “that can be transmitted from animals to people or, more specifically, a disease that normally exists in animals but that can infect humans” according to the County of Los Angeles Public Health page. Because COVID-19 is believed to originate from a bat, it would be considered as a zoonotic disease even if it does not necessarily spread between species currently. There are also vector-borne diseases which spread as a result of blood transmission. “The vector remains perhaps the most common trope of the animal in health” (Nading, 61). Many historic plagues were a result of an animal being used as a vector, either as a vector-borne disease or zoonotic disease. Malaria and yellow fever are both examples of vector-borne diseases, commonly transferred to humans by blood transmission by mosquitoes and other pest bugs. One zoonotic disease that was able to transfer between different animal species and humans was bovine tubercle bacilli which appeared in the late 1800s and early 1900s. This strand of tuberculosis “has one of the broadest host ranges of all known pathogens: disease has been reported in domesticated cattle, bison, buffaloes, marsupials, hares, equines, camels, pigs, sheep, goats, deer, antelopes, elephants, cats, dogs, foxes, mink, badgers, moles, ferrets, rats, and primates including men” (Grange and Collins, 222).

            Human development has increased the ability for animals to be disease vectors. “Environmental histories of animal-inclusive diseases tend to begin with the idea that a transformation occurred with the domestication of animals and the rise of sedentary societies” (Nading, 64). Historic diseases such as the black plague were quickly spread through highly populated areas, such as London. This plague was able to spread quickly household to household with fleas and rats. These animals also allowed the plague to spread over a vast range and reappear multiple times.

            Many historic diseases have been able to spread easily from place to place. Disease spread has become easier through “the globalization of industrial livestock production and the rapidly expanding international trade in animals and animal products from wild and domesticated species are fostering the emergence and global proliferation of new zoonotic diseases with the ability to pass between and among humans, wildlife, and domesticated animals” (Dudley, 982). Our big cities and global trade have become an easy breeding ground for new diseases to spread fast and far. COVID-19 has also shown to spread quicker in more densely populated cities, but it is not from an animal vector.

Are Animals Vectors with COVID?          

            Like many previous pandemics, it is suspected that COVID-19 began due to an animal influence. Currently the CDC believes that this outbreak started from a bat, but “there is no evidence that animals play a significant role in spreading SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, to people.” There has been evidence of other types of coronavirus that can spread between humans and animals, and like COVID-19 these cases are not common. Since COVID-19 first appeared, almost all the reported cases have been in humans. Many research studies “do not show whether animals can spread infection to people” according to the CDC as there is currently not enough data present.

            Additional studies by the College of Veterinary Medicine at Ohio State University and American Veterinary Medical Association that domesticated animals that are infected currently show no evidence of being able to spread to humans or other animals. The College of Veterinary Medicine states that “confirmed cases in pets are exceedingly rare, and fortunately result in mild or no clinical signs of illness.” According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, infected animals have similar symptoms of COVID-19 such as coughing, fever, and difficulty breathing. “If your pet has been exposed to a person with COVID-19 and develops a respiratory illness, please discuss this with a veterinarian” is the recommendation from the College of Veterinary Medicine.

            In conclusion, COVID-19 is an example of zoonotic disease that originally used an animal as a vector to spread to humans. Whether our pets and other animals will be greatly affected by this disease is still undetermined. More research must be done before it can be properly determined if there is a connection between COVID-19 and animals. With the little information available, pets and other animals in close contact with humans should be unaffected by this pandemic on a medical level. COVID-19 has shown to be different than previous diseases with animal vectors.

Sources:

“Acute Communicable Disease Control.” Department of Public Health – Acute Communicable Disease Control, 2021, http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/acd/vector.htm#:~:text=Acute%20Communicable,-Disease%20Control&text=Vector%2DBorne%20Disease%3A%20Disease%20that,%2C%20Lyme%20disease%2C%20and%20malaria

Blocker, Kati. “COVID-19 and Pets: What You Should Know.” UCHealth Today, 5 Apr. 2021, www.uchealth.org/today/covid-19-and-pets-what-you-should-know/   

Christina Larson, Aniruddha Ghosal. “Scientists Focus on Bats for Clues to Prevent next Pandemic.” AP NEWS, Associated Press, 14 Dec. 2020, https://apnews.com/article/pandemics-brazil-rio-de-janeiro-animals-forests-5a7dff4d7ad18209edf4e35e62607087 .  

“COVID-19 and Animals.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021, www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/animals.html#:~:text=We%20do%20not%20know%20the,19%2C%20to%20people

“COVID-19 and Animals.” COVID-19 and Animals | College of Veterinary Medicine, 2021, https://vet.osu.edu/about-us/news/covid-19-and-animals .  

DUDLEY, JOSEPH P. “Global Zoonotic Disease Surveillance: An Emerging Public Health and Biosecurity Imperative.” BioScience, vol. 54, no. 11, 2004, pp. 982–983. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1641/0006-3568(2004)054[0982:gzdsae]2.0.co;2 . Accessed 10 Apr. 2021.

Grange, J. M., and C. H. Collins. “Special Article: Bovine Tubercle Bacilli and Disease in Animals and Man.” Epidemiology and Infection, vol. 99, no. 2, 1987, pp. 221–234. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3863641 . Accessed 10 Apr. 2021.

Noding, Alex M. “Humans, Animals, and Health: From Ecology to Entanglement.” Environment & Society, vol. 4, 2013, pp. 60–78. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43297037 . Accessed 10 Apr. 2021.

Parry, Nicola M.A. “COVID-19 and Pets: When Pandemic Meets Panic.” Forensic Science International. Reports, The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V., Dec. 2020, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7151387/ .

“SARS-CoV-2 in Animals.” American Veterinary Medical Association, 2021, www.avma.org/resources-tools/animal-health-and-welfare/covid-19/sars-cov-2-animals-including-pets .

“Spontaneous Disease in Animals and Humans.” NC State Veterinary Medicine, 15 Apr. 2018, https://cvm.ncsu.edu/research/spontaneous-disease-in-animals-and-human-beings/ .

Sugihara, Risa. “Reuse of Human Excreta in Developing Countries: Agricultural Fertilization Optimization.” Consilience, no. 22, 2020, pp. 58–64. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26924962 . Accessed 7 Apr. 2021.