Cats and dogs should also be vaccinated against COVID-19 to help stop the spread of the infectious disease – amid a threat to the “continuous evolution of the virus in animals,” the scientists warned.
Researchers at the University of East Anglia and the Earlham Institute, both in the UK, and the University of Minnesota have warned of the “significant long-term risk to public health” from such a broadcast in an editorial for Virulence.
“It is inconceivable that vaccination of domesticated animal species may be … necessary to reduce the spread of the infection,” experts wrote in a peer-reviewed medical journal, the UK Independent reported.
Although there are no known cases of a man contracting COVID-19 from a fur family member, Cock van Oosterhout, a professor of evolutionary genetics at UEA in Norwich, said we should prepare “just in case.” .
“It makes sense to develop pet vaccines for pets as a precaution to reduce this risk,” he said. “What we need to be as a human society, we need to be truly prepared for any eventuality when it comes to COVID.”
Last year, Denmark was forced to eat millions of minks after hundreds of cases of coronavirus in the country were linked to farm creatures.
If this were to happen to cats and dogs, it would pose a “significant long-term risk to public health,” the editorial warned.
“The continuous evolution of the virus in the hosts of animals in the tank, followed by spill events into 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, mink and other wild and domesticated species, and therefore vaccination of pets may be required to stop further virus development and spillback events. . ”
The scientists added: “As vaccination campaigns against SARS-CoV-2 / Covid-19 take place around the world, it is possible that new variants of the virus will continue to evolve, which have the potential to cross the human population.” .
In the meantime, the group calls on governments to continue to apply strict control measures, such as mask warrants and social distancing orders, in order to reduce the evolution and spread of any new COVID variants.