A 28-yar-old unnamed man from Arizona developed COVID-19 symptoms in early March and eventually tested positive for the virus and 10 days later, his dog and cat reportedly tested positive for COVID-19, as well. He was unvaccinated at the time.
A Mail Online report said this was the first case of human-to-pet transmission ever recorded in the United States. Now, it's giving the experts another look at how the virus that has taken over the world is being transmitted.
Epidemiologist Dr. Hayley Yaglom at the Translational Genomics Research Institute in Flagstaff, Arizona told the news site there had been a lot of evidence over the last past 18 months or so, that animals are vulnerable to contracting COVID-19.
Yaglom, the study's lead researcher, added they don't always turn symptomatic although they surely can be exposed and get infected with the virus.
An Unusual COVID-19 Variant
The study authors, who had their findings published in One Health in September, discovered that the man was infected with a specific, unusual variant of COVID-19.
Soon after, the man's pets tested positive with the same variant, and since neither spend too much time outdoors, the only way they could have gotten infected would be through their owners.
Since the man showed symptoms first, and the limited contacts the dog and cat have with others outside of the household, the researchers found that he transmitted the virus to the pets, and not vice versa.
However, the team was unable to identify which of the two pets contracted COVID-19 first, or if either of them spread it to each other.
Human-to-Animal Transmission
Both pets had been reported to have an asymptomatic case of the illness. While this is the first-ever case the study authors can verify in the US, they have believed for some time that the spread of the virus from humans to pets is probable.
Yaglom explained that it was certainly something they hypothesized based on the growing evidence. The lead researcher also said that other researchers have discovered some evidence that this transmission type is plausible, although they have not been able to pinpoint a particular occurrence of it taking place.
While the virus spreading from animals to humans is definitely within the realm of probability, Yaglom is not aware of any instances of domesticated animals transmitting the virus to a human.
Essentially, animals living in a home with a human are not very possible to contract COVID-19 on their own since they frequently interact with members of the family on a regular basis.
Yaglom's team is continuing to examine inter-species COVID-19 transmission. While the virus can posture a grave threat to human beings, killing millions of people worldwide, animals are not facing the virus at a similar level of risk.
Cats More Likely to Develop Severe COVID-19 Than Dogs
Yaglom said in general, it does not appear like dogs and cats, at least the domestic ones living at home are as great of a risk of developing a severe infection, or death as compared to humans.
A lot of animals, such as the two pets discovered in Arizona are asymptomatic as well when they do get infected by the virus.
Compared to dogs, cats are found to be more likely to develop a severe COVID-19 case, although the risk of either remains extremely low.
A separate Mail Online report said the first case of confirmed transmission of the virus between humans and pets took place in South Korea when a family of cats living in a school was discovered to have contracted COVID-19.
Report about the first human-to-animal transmission of COVID-19 in South Korea was shown on South China Morning Post's YouTube video below:
Check out more news and information on COVID-19 on Science Times.
