Science: Do pets need to be vaccinated with COVID-19?

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, it has not only had a profound impact on human society, but also infected pets, domestic animals and wild animals.

For example, cats and dogs may be infected by SARS-CoV-2. Papers from China show that cats also have the ability to transmit coronavirus to other cats. Mink is the hardest hit area. Hundreds of mink farms around the world broke out, which also caused human infection in Europe, and many farms had to cull.

Scientists also worry that people or livestock may spread the virus to wildlife, resulting in uncontrollable virus database.

At present, there are several effective human vaccines against COVID-19 in the world. But are vaccines for pets and other animals necessary? How will they develop? And how quickly they are available. On December 18th, local time, Science magazine discussed this issue.

Science reports that there is no need to use pet vaccines urgently at present. The symptoms of pets infected with SARS-CoV-2 seem to be relatively mild, and it seems that cats and dogs have not played an important role in the spread of COVID-19.

Commercial license of pet vaccine in America is approved by USDA. At present, USDA has not approved any COVID-19 vaccine. The agency said, “Data show that this vaccine is worthless.”. Joil Hayden, a spokesperson for the US Department of Agriculture, told Science: “Companies are still free to develop these vaccines, but without licenses, these companies cannot sell or distribute them.”

Laboratory studies have shown that SARS-CoV-2 can infect many animals from squirrels to sheep and even sperm whales. Jonathan Epstein, vice president of science and promotion at EcoHealth, said in an interview with Science that he was most concerned about gorillas. Epstein said that human respiratory viruses used to be fatal among chimpanzees and gorillas, and researchers worried that SARS-CoV-2 might eliminate endangered primate species in Africa and Asia.

Black-footed ferrets and other endangered animals have also attracted much attention. In view of the high susceptibility of ferrets to SARS-CoV-2 in the laboratory, the risk of COVID-19 outbreak in black-footed ferrets is very high.