Coronavirus patient's pet Pomeranian dog tests positive for disease in first such case since outbreak
The dog of a woman who tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus has also tested positive for the disease, making it possibly the first case where a dog has been infected with the highly-contagious pathogen.
Businesswoman Yvonne Chow Hau Yee, 60, of Hong Kong, is said to have first developed symptoms on Thursday, February 20, before being diagnosed with the coronavirus five days later. Local media also reported she went out to drink tea and attended a wedding while infected, raising fears she could have passed on the virus to many other people -- so far, the financial hub has confirmed 93 cases and two deaths.
Yee's dog, a pomeranian, was collected from her home close to a week after she was diagnosed and placed in a hospital isolation ward. It "tested a weak positive" for the virus after nasal and oral cavity samples were taken, revealed a spokesperson for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFVD).
While the canine has no "relevant symptoms," it has been placed into a quarantine facility based near Zhuhai Macao Bridge and will be kept at the center for the next 14 days. Officials said they will conduct repeated tests until it is cleared of the virus.
"It would be closely monitored and undergo further tests to confirm if it really has the virus or if 'this is a result of environmental contamination of the dog's mouth and nose,'" the AFVD said.
In a statement, the AFVD also said they do not have evidence that "pet animals can be infected with COVID-19 virus or can be a source of infection to people," though they still recommended that pets of infected people be quarantined for two weeks.
The spokesperson added that all pet owners should maintain a good habit of hygiene and wash their hands after having contact with their pets, and advised that they wear masks while going out. The spokesperson also asked owners to take their pets to veterinarians if it experienced a change in health during this epidemic.
MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) previously reported that residents in multiple Chinese cities, including Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, and Shanghai, were throwing their cats and dogs out of buildings over fears they would catch the COVID-19 virus from their pets.
China has also seemingly ordered households to get rid of their pets, with one village in Hebei even threatening to take the matter into their hands by "handling" it their way. In Wuhan, a neighborhood has restricted its residents from letting their pet dogs, cats and, other livestock leave their homes, with local officials warning they would "catch kill and bury the animals" on the spot if found.
Despite the hysteria, Dr. Niels Pedersen, a professor at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and an expert on infectious and immunologic diseases in dogs and cats, assured in a post on the UC Davis that people "won’t get or give the coronavirus to your family pet."
"They [coronaviruses] tend to be very species-specific and cross-species transmission is uncommon," he wrote. "The Wuhan coronavirus appears to have successfully adapted to humans (i.e., it has become humanized) and is therefore looming as an even more severe disease problem than MERS and SARS [...]"
"There is no evidence that coronaviruses of our common veterinary species have entered humans in the recent past or vice versa."
More than 2,800 people have died globally from COVID-19, while more than 83,000 infections have been confirmed in dozens of countries, according to the World Health Organization.