- Following cases of COVID-19 diagnosed in animals, there has been uncertainty about whether animals can spread the coronavirus. Researchers note, however, that it is people who pollute animals and not the other way around.
The Guardian reported on April 6 that a New York Bronx Zoo tiger was infected with coronavirus. This was not the first case of coronavirus recorded in animals, as two dogs were previously diagnosed in China and one cat in Belgium. The knowledge that the virus also affects animals and that animals can infect humans has caused discomfort among the population. However, research suggests the opposite: there is no evidence that animals can infect humans, but it has been shown that humans can contaminate animals. In the case of the four animals mentioned, it has been deduced that the dogs and the cat were infected by their owners and that the tiger was transmitted by a worker.
A study in China found that cats and ferrets are more susceptible to the virus than other animals and that in dogs, for example, the tendency to become infected is not the same as in cats. Furthermore, according to what has happened to date, the virus is not dangerous in animals, which have little symptoms, and there is no evidence that animals can infect humans.
The coronavirus, therefore, is a “vessel of zoonoses” as studied so far: the virus can pass from the person to the animals, but not the other way around. With the exception of the mediating animal in the passage of the SARS-CoV-2 virus from animals to humans, animals do not seem to infect humans with coronavirus.