"No evidence" dogs can spread covid

Wednesday 01 September 2021

Jersey’s Chief Vet has reassured islanders that there is no evidence dogs can transmit covid to humans or other canines, after a dog tested positive for the virus on the island.

The Government confirmed on Friday that the case of canine covid had been reported to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the animal equivalent of WHO.

The dog, who had a number of underlying conditions and was living in a household with someone with covid, collapsed and was taken to the vets on 9 July.

It did not respond to any treatment and was put down later that day. The dog was swabbed by a private vet after it passed away and the positive result was officially confirmed and flagged to the OIE after follow-up tests last week.

Pictured: Jersey's Chief Veterinary Officer, Alistair Breed, said as of yet, there was "no evidence" that dogs can spread covid to other dogs, let alone humans. 

Jersey's Chief Veterinary Officer, Alistair Breed, said it was "most likely" that the dog had been infected by the person in its household with covid.

While the dog definitely had covid, Mr Breed said it was unclear whether the virus was "actually causing disease in the dog", noting that it had other underlying health problems.

Highlighting the rarity of the virus in dogs, Mr Breed said there had only been "something like 87 cases" reported worldwide as of 31 July.

Of these, he said that some of the infected dogs had shown "mild signs" of covid, while others had shown "no signs at all."

Pictured: Extensive laboratory tests took place to identify the covid infection.

He said that potential transmission to other dogs was not currently a concern, because, "as of yet, there's no evidence that dogs can spread it to other dogs."

Explaining why it seemed unlikely that this would happen, he said: "Without going into masses of technical detail... viruses require the host to have certain specific features to be able to take the virus on board and replicate it.

"The assumption would be in this case that dogs aren't very well-adapted to the virus and therefore they don't create very much of the virus, they don't create much of a viral load, so dogs don't make a good host... whereas humans sadly appear to make a very good host for the virus."

Dogs aren't the only domestic pets to have contracted covid.

Mr Breed said there had been 102 reports of covid in cats worldwide. He said that although "clinical signs can sometimes be seen in some of the cases... they seem to be very mild if they are seen."

Whilst the spread of virus is incredibly rare for the animals, Mr Breed said he still wanted to "remind people about social distancing, and good old fashioned hygiene."

"People should wash their hands before and after handling animals, and if there is anyone in the household who is infected with covid 19, it's a good idea if they don't snuggle up too much to the animal and certainly don't share any food or feeding utensils with the animal or bedding," he explained.

"But that's not for the protection of the human - that's just to help reduce the very remote risk that the dog might potentially become infected from an infected human."