We have a lot of different concerns about SARS-CoV-2 on mink farms. Mink are really susceptible and human-mink infection isn’t uncommon, so if we continue to farm mink, we will continue to expose mink as long as this virus is around.
Two of the biggest concerns relate to the potential for mink to make things
As we start seeing a light at the end of the (long) tunnel, we have to think about how and when to restart various activities. One particular activity that I get a lot of emails about is pet therapy/visitation programs. These are great programs, where animals (usually, and ideally, dogs) are taken into facilities to
I’ve written before about animal vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 with regard to mink, but with Russia having recently licensed its Carnivac-Cov vaccine for use in several species (namely dogs, cats, foxes and mink) and Zoetis developing a vaccine in the US for mink, there’s continued interest in the subject, so I’ll revisit it.
I’m glad
I seriously considered this as my email auto-reply today:
I’ve written a lot about raw pet food in the past. Initially, the concerns were about Salmonella, since raw-fed dogs and cats have high rates of shedding Salmonella, and both pets and owners can get sick from it (owners can be infected directly by the pet or from handling or cross-contamination from the pet
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has released new rules for importation of dogs less than 8 months of age for commercial purposes into Canada. The issues around canine importation have been increasingly prominent in recent years, and came to the forefront following an importation debacle in June 2020 that led to the deaths
Ivermectin is a commonly used anti-parasitic in animals, and it’s also used in people to treat some parasitic diseases. Additionally, it’s still widely discussed in some internet circles for treatment or prevention of COVID-19. That’s based on mainly anecdotes, some in vitro study, and very poor quality “clinical trials”.
It’s led to stories of people
I’ve had a blog writing dry spell lately (too much other stuff to catch up on), so I’ll jump back with a quick summary of some recent papers on SARS-CoV-2 in animals. There isn’t really anything surprising here, but it’s a continuation of what we’ve been learning and saying for a while.
I’ve taken a look back at some posts from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, to see how my thoughts have evolved, what I got right and what I screwed up. We have a lot of COVID-19 posts (starting from when we called it “novel coronavirus” or “Wuhan coronavirus” before the SARS-CoV-2 terminology existed).
I tweeted recently about the first report of the B.1.1.7 SARS-CoV-2 variant being found in animals, specifically in a dog and cat in Texas, which deserves some more discussion. Also a new pre-print article (i.e. non-peer-reviewed paper) was posted recently that will probably raise more concerns, so I figured I’d better write about that
