Winston, the McClean family's pug from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was included in a Duke study after three family members tested positive for coronavirus. The family reported Winston exhibiting minor symptoms such as refusing to eat and making gagging sounds.
Sam McClean, his wife Heather, and their son, Ben all contracted COVID-19 last month. Later on, they found out that their pet pug, Winston, also caught the coronavirus. The McCleans have another dog and a cat, whose tests came back negative. The only member who didn't catch the virus was their daughter, Sydney, who showed no symptoms of the disease.
As part of Duke University's study on COVID-19, members of the family underwent weekly nasal swabs and gave blood samples. The study aimed to find potential treatment and a vaccine for the disease.
Chris Woods, the leader of the study, said that researchers have also been collecting samples from family pets to see how coronavirus gets transmitted in households. He emphasized that the researchers did not use high-demand commercial tests on the animals.
Although the team hasn't tested many pets yet, Winston's sample is the only one that came back positive. He is believed to be the first dog in the United States to test positive for the virus, according to the university.
According to Woods, the amount of virus detected in Winston was meager, suggesting that he would not be a likely vector of transmission of the virus to either other animals or humans in the household.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still asserts that no evidence points out to pets playing a role in spreading the virus.
However, experts say that there is also little evidence that tells us how dangerous the virus can be to a household pet. The CDC suggests treating pets as if they were another human family member. They advise pet owners not to allow their pets to interact with anyone outside the home, not to snuggle with their pets if feeling sick, and wearing a mask around their pets if the owner tested positive for coronavirus.
Other Animals That Tested Positive to Coronavirus
The first reported case of coronavirus in animals was a four-year-old female Himalayan tiger, named Nadia, at the Bronx Zoo. She tested positive for the virus while three other tigers and three African lions were showing similar symptoms in the same zoo. All were reported to test positive, but are now doing well, according to reports.
About six days ago, two pet cats in New York tested positive for the virus, making them the first pets to test positive for the virus in the U.S., according to the CDC.
One of the cats was tested after it showed mild respiratory signs, although its owners were not confirmed to have COVID-19. The virus was thought to be transmitted to the cat by asymptomatic household members or through contact with an infected person outside its home, the CDC reported.
The owner of the second cat had tested positive for the coronavirus, and the pet was also tested after showing signs of respiratory illness.
Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, two dogs under quarantine also tested positive for the virus, according to the country's local officials.
Despite these recent transmissions in pets, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease specialist, said in a press briefing last week that "there is no evidence whatsoever that we've seen, from an epidemiological standpoint, that pets can be transmitters within the household."
