Cats and dogs may also need to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to help curb the spread of the infectious disease, amid a threat of the “continued evolution of the virus in animals,” scientists have warned.
Researchers at the University of East Anglia and Earlham Institute, both in the UK, and the University of Minnesota warned of the “significant long-term risk to public health” arising from this transmission in an editorial for Virulence.
“It is unthinkable that vaccination of some species of domesticated animals may be … necessary to curb the spread of the infection,” the experts wrote in the peer-reviewed medical journal, the UK Independent reported.
Although there are no known cases in which a human being contracted COVID-19 from a furry relative, Cock van Oosterhout, a professor of evolutionary genetics at UEA in Norwich, said we should prepare “for any eventuality.”
“It makes sense to develop vaccines for pets, for pets, as a precaution to reduce that risk,” he said. “What we need to be as a human society, we really need to be prepared for any eventuality when it comes to COVID.”
Last year, Denmark was forced to kill millions of minks after hundreds of coronavirus cases in the country were linked to farmed creatures.
If this happened to cats and dogs, it would pose “a significant long-term risk to public health,” the editorial warned.
“Continued evolution of the virus in reservoir animal hosts, followed by repercussion events in susceptible human hosts, poses a significant long-term risk to public health,” the group of scientists wrote.
“SARS-CoV-2 can infect a wide range of host species, including cats, dogs, minks, and other wild and domesticated species, and therefore vaccination of domesticated animals may be necessary to stop evolution. of virus and side events “.
The scientists added: “While SARS-CoV-2 / Covid-19 vaccination campaigns are being rolled out around the world, new virus variants that have the potential to sweep the human population are likely to continue to evolve “.
Meanwhile, the group also calls on governments to continue to implement strict control measures, such as mask mandates and social distancing orders, to reduce the evolution and diffusion of new variants of COVID.