Scientists detected a new canine coronavirus in a child with pneumonia, who admitted to a hospital in Malaysia in 2018.
The New York Times report said, the newly-detected coronavirus may not posture a serious threat, although the result highlights the necessity to monitor animal viruses more proactively.
If the virus, explained to the scientists, is confirmed to be a human pathogen, it would be the first canine, and the eighth coronavirus identified to cause illness in humans.
The said research does not prove that pneumonia resulted from the virus, which may not have the ability to spread between people.
Nevertheless, findings from the study, Novel Canine Coronavirus Isolated from a Hospitalized Pneumonia Patient, East Malaysia, published in the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal, emphasizes the need to more proactively look for viruses that could transfer from animals to humans, said the researchers.
Other Coronaviruses
According to infectious disease epidemiologist Dr. Gregory Gray, from Dake University, who is part of the authors of the study, he thinks the key message is that probably, these things are happening worldwide, where people are coming in contact with animals, specifically intense contact, "and we're not picking them up."
He added, there is a need to be searching for these things. If they can be caught early and such viruses succeed in the human host, they can then be mitigated prior to becoming a pandemic virus.
Currently, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, seven coronaviruses are known to infect humans. Other than SARS-CoV-2, the World Health Organization said, that causes COVID-19, there are other coronaviruses that cause MERS, SARS, and the common cold.
Many of these coronavirus types are believed to have come from bats, although they can jump from bats to humans, either directly, or following a stopover in another animal host.
Canine Coronaviruses
For decades, scientists have known that coronaviruses can result in disease in dogs, although until now, there has been no evidence showing that canine coronaviruses can infect humans.
Scientists still cannot be sure if it was a dog that transferred the new virus to the patient. Dr. Gray said, it was likely a dog, although another, intermediary animal host, which includes cats, may have been responsible for the infection.
This news report also specified that there is no evidence that dogs transfer COVID-19 infection to humans, although both dogs and cats can catch the virus.
The new study started last spring after the pandemic occurred when Dr. Grey asked doctoral student Leshan Xiu to develop a screening mechanism that could help them detect and identify all kinds of coronaviruses, not just those that scientists already knew of.
They then used the method, a variation on the so-called gold-standard PCR test, usually used to diagnose COVID-19, to assess some old patient samples.
The said specimens were nasopharyngeal swabs taken from more than 301 individuals with pneumonia who had been admitted at hospitals in Malaysia in years 2017 and 2018.
In eight of the samples, they were able to detect what appeared like a COVID-19 virus, similar to those known to infect dogs.
These samples were fundamentally from children who lived in settings or places in which contact with both domestic was typical.
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