COVID-19 and Pet Animals: What we need to know?

Virology Journal

On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19), a disease caused by a pathogen called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a pandemic. This ongoing pandemic has now been reported in 215 countries with more than 23 million confirmed cases and more than 803 thousand deaths worldwide as of August 22, 2020. Although efforts are undergoing, there is no approved vaccine or any specific antiretroviral drug to treat COVID-19 so far. It is now known that SARS-CoV-2 can affect not only humans but also pets and other domestic and wild animals, making it a one health global problem. Several published scientific evidence has shown that bats are the initial reservoir hosts of SARS-CoV-2, and pangolins are suggested as an intermediate hosts. So far, little is known concerning the role of pets and other animals in the transmission of COVID-19. Therefore, updated knowledge about the potential role of pets in the current outbre...

International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences

Veterinary Quarterly, 2020

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has spread over 210 countries and territories beyond China shortly. On February 29, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) denoted it in a high-risk category, and on March 11, 2020, this virus was designated pandemic, after its declaration being a Public Health International Emergency on January 30, 2020. World over high efforts are being made to counter and contain this virus. The COVID-19 outbreak once again proves the potential of the animal-human interface to act as the primary source of emerging zoonotic diseases. Even though the circumstantial evidence suggests the possibility of an initial zoonotic emergence, it is too early to confirm the role of intermediate hosts such as snakes, pangolins, turtles, and other wild animals in the origin of SARS-CoV-2, in addition to bats, the natural hosts of multiple coronaviruses such as SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. The lessons learned from past episodes of MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV are being exploited to retort this virus. Best efforts are being taken up by worldwide nations to implement effective diagnosis, strict vigilance, heightened surveillance, and monitoring, along with adopting appropriate preventive and control strategies. Identifying the possible zoonotic emergence and the exact mechanism responsible for its initial transmission will help us to design and implement appropriate preventive barriers against the further transmission of SARS-CoV-2. This review discusses in brief about the COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2 with a particular focus on the role of animals, the veterinary and associated zoonotic links along with prevention and control strategies based on One-health approaches.

2020

The COVID-19 caused by the coronavirus 2 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARSCoV-2), was first reported in Wuhan, China, starting an outbreak that affected countries around the whole world. The disease leads to simple clinical signs, such as colds common to more serious conditions as pneumonia and severe respiratory insufficiency. It is assumed that the agent was originated from bats in China, considering its as natural reservoirs, however, this relationship is still being investigated, as well as the possible intermediate hosts. Little is known about the relationship of animals with the disease epidemiological cycle, however, until now, the human transmission to companion animals and vice versa, is not yet evidenced. Nevertheless, some care must be considered if the tutors are infected by the disease.

International Journal of Zoology and Animal Biology

In recent years, a number of diseases have been observed in humans that have their beginning in animal pathogens. The most recent example is the pandemic that shook the whole world - COVID-19. There have been many discussions about the onset of this disease, and since the pandemic was announced, in-depth research has been conducted on the pathogen and the development of the disease in humans. But research on the role of domestic animals in this pandemic has not been sufficiently studied. There are case reports of single cases or a small group of animals. There is a need to deepen research in that area. This mini-review examines and discusses some of the reported cases and aims to direct the scientific community to research on the role of domestic animals in the COVID-19 pandemic. Objective: To discuss the information about connection of the COVID-19 patients and the spread of the virus from their domestic animals.

Indian Journal of Veterinary Sciences and Biotechnology, 2020

Corona virus has a wide host range in animal kingdom including humans Till 2002, the information related to human lethality due to corona virus infection was very scanty and signs were uncommon But early in 2002, appearance of a syndrome associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) has changed the whole scenario in relation to mortality in homo sapiens, and this SARS outbreaks was followed by Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in 2012 and currently in 2019-2020 we are dealing with corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) which is genetically closely related to SARS-CoV SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein interact with human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) protein and gain excess to human cells for replication and this action lead to devastating outcome in humans they infect along with excessive cytokine storm In this current review we have tried to give some update related to COVID-19 infection, major risk factor analysis ...

The SARS-CoV-2 virus has spread swiftly over the world since the first cases of COVID-19 were discovered in Wuhan, Hubei, China, in December 2019. The World Health Organization (WHO) classified COVID-19 a global pandemic in March 2020. SARS-CoV-2 is now known to harm not only humans but also pets and other domestic wild and aquatic animals, making it a global health issue. To stop the disease transmission many animals were killed brutally. It is thought that various animals have got COVID from their infected owners. Due to lockdown, farming and fishing activity is reduced. Many animals faced shortage of food, loss of home. This pandemic also affects the economic growth of dairy farms and livestock production. Fish prices raises during first lockdown but gradually decline due to poor demand. This pandemic also affects the livestock supply by imposing shortage of animal's machinery and shortage of labors and professional services. As animals and humans depend on one another for various purposes so, the animals health is of our great concern. So, the people with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 should avoid contact with animals. To reduce the food safety risks appropriate slaughter techniques should be used. The impact of covid-19 and animals is summarized in this review.

Recent years have witnessed the emergence of several zoonotic infections causing significant morbidity and mortality in both sexes

2020

Coronavirus disease is the current cause of global concern. The massive outbreak of COVID-19 has led the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare this as a pandemic situation. The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARSCoV-2) is responsible for COVID-19 leading to acute respiratory distress and substantial mortality in humans. However, the first laboratory confirmation of SARS-CoV-2 in a pet dog in Hong Kong has shown the possibility of human-to-animal transmission (zooanthroponotic) of the virus. Thereafter, many animals including cat, tiger, lion and mink have also been reported to acquire the virus in several countries. In this situation the role of veterinarian assumes important in treating the animals, helping in food security, disease diagnosis, surveillance and boosting the economy of livestock stakeholders at the grassroot level. In the absence of any selective vaccine or drug against SARS-CoV-2, the world is anticipated to triumph over this pandemic with col...

International Journal of Veterinary Science, 2021

Pneumonia due to unknown cause appeared in early December, 2019 in many people residing in Wuhan city, China (Li et al. 2020a). The causal agent of this infection was verified as a novel coronavirus (nCoV), and later the disease was identified as Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) by the WHO and the causative virus was renamed as SARS-CoV-2 (Lai et al. 2020; Yuen et al. 2020). This viral disease outbreak very rapidly spread all around the globe and WHO declared public health emergency internationally on January 30, 2020, which was afterwards announced as worldwide pandemic on March 11, 2020 (WHO 2020a). As of December 23, 2020, >76.3 million definite cases and >1.7 million deaths have been altogether reported worldwide (WHO 2020b). This group of Coronaviruses belongs to the subfamily Orthocoronavirinae of family Coronaviridae (Dhama et al. 2020), and order Nidovirales. These viruses are classified on the basis of their genetic, as well as susceptibility to various species, into following four genera i.e., Alphacoronavirus (α-CoV), Betacoronavirus (β-CoV), Gammacoronavirus (γ-CoV), and Deltacoronavirus (δ-CoV) (Lau et al. 2015; Li et al. 2020a; Gennaro et al. 2020; Kiros et al. 2020; Fig. 1). Generally, viruses belong to αand β-CoV genera can cause infection in mammalian animals including humans, while δ-and γ-CoVs viruses can cause illness mostly in birds and other animals (Li et al. 2020a; Sharun et al. 2020a). Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has appeared as the 7 th member in the family of corona viruses causing infection in humans (Hasoksuz et al. 2020). Before this pandemic, atypical pneumonia due to Middle East respiratory syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV) was reported in humans (Li et al. 2020a;