Can Dogs Give and Take Coronavirus Covid 19 To and From You?

This is a pertinent question that many dog owners are having at this stage when the world is loosing before Coronavirus. Social media channels - especially Facebook and Twitter have been noticed to be over flooded with misconceptions.

Fact be revealed here.

A German shepherd dog from the Pok Fu Lam area in Hong Kong have been detected positive with Covid 19 and quarantined on Thursday, March 19, 2020 followed by the owner being infected. This news has been confirmed by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) in a statement. However, the GSD wasn't quarantined alone. His pack mate - a mixed-breed dog has also been quarantined along with, although the mixed-breed wasn't diagnosed with corona. According to AFCD neither of the canines did show the obvious symptoms of Covid 19.

Even before this, there was another news of a 17 years old Pomeranian (owned by a 60 years old lady) that expired on Monday, March 16, soon after the dog was released, being cured on Sunday, March 8, 2020. This geriatric canine was tested by AFCD on Feb 26, 2020 and was detected positive with Covid 19 (though mild). AFCD quarantined the pom for 14 days. Subsequent blood tests done by AFCD revealed that the pom's immune system was not responding well enough, when the department said: “The negative result indicates that there is not a strong immune response and that there are not measurable amounts of antibodies in the blood at this stage.”

The news of the Pomeranian's sad demise after getting release from the quarantine turned the world dog lovers community speechless, although many animals welfare organizations concluded that the death of the dog was due to the severe stress when quarantined.

So, one thing is very evident - Dogs can get Covid 19. Now the question is if dogs can spread corona virus - Covid 19.

A new veterinary test system for Covid 19 has been set up, where canine and feline specimens have been scientifically evaluated. According to the experts Covid 19 virus gets transmitted from humans to humans via oral and nasal pathway. The World Organization of Animal Health (France) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (America) have both said that there is no evidence that companion pets can spread this virus. However, this doesn't give a confirmation that pets cannot spread Covid 19.

It is important to understand that the planet is still in the learning stage with Corona (Covid 19) virus, and nothing can be guaranteed at this point of time. Researchers are uncertain and reports data are confusing.

Meanwhile, something noticeably more interesting happened! According to scientists, the Covid 19 that had originated in Wuhan has undergone mutation. This means the original coronavirus that originated in Wuhan has altered its characteristics and now has new abilities. In this related context CSIRO's professor Trevor Drew said, "This virus belongs to a group of viruses that exist not as a single virus but as a cloud of subtly different ones and if it finds a new niche to occupy, it will do that and slowly get better at replicating in the new host or alternatively it might die out."

Therefore, today's finding that dogs and cats can be carrier of corona covid 19 virus, but may not be source of transmission to humans, may prove to be false in the coming days because of the changing nature of the virus due to mutation.

Kai Kupferschmidt - the contributing correspondent for Science Magazine in his post - Mutations can reveal how the coronavirus moves, published in ScienceMag has given a bit of understanding of this. Kari stated, "although China accounts for 80% of all COVID-19 cases, only one-third of the published genomes are from China — and very few of them are from later cases. And because it’s early in the outbreak, most genomes are still very similar, which makes it hard to draw conclusions."

In the same line, associate Professor at the Biozentrum, University of Basel stated: "We just have this handful of mutations, which makes these groupings so ambiguous... As the outbreak unfolds, we expect to see more and more diversity and more clearly distinct lineages... and then it will become easier and easier to actually put things together."

Hence the reality is, no doctors are in a position to guarantee that pets cannot spread Covid 19, although so far there is no official evidence. However, there's definitely a clear evidence that pets can get Covid 19.