Concerns about the animal aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to come in waves. Most of the time they are ignored or dismissed, but there are also periodic flurries of attention and (often over-) reaction. Lately, questions about vaccination of animals against SARS-CoV-2 follow have been on the rise.
Should domestic and wild animals be
One thing we’ve been watching for with SARS-CoV-2 in animals is whether we will see establishment of “animal” variants. Humans have done an effective job of infecting a wide variety of animal species with this primarily-human virus. Fortunately, thus far these infections usually die out rapidly in that animal or group of animals (mink being
As SARS-CoV-2 continues to rip through the human population, we’re getting more information about downstream impacts, including transmission to animals. One of my talking points since the start of the pandemic has been that we want to keep this virus in the human population. If we spread it to animals, it will be much harder
In 2021, the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry (NDMNRF) contacted the University of Guelph’s Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses (CPHAZ) about concerns pertaining to the use of the antiviral drug acyclovir in raccoons, specifically for “treatment” of distemper. While only used by a distinct minority of raccoon rehabilitators (maybe
It’s been a pretty chaotic week in the zoonotic SARS-CoV-2 world, with a lot of attention being paid to hamsters in Hong Kong and deer in Canada.
However, one issue that’s gotten less attention is the need to keep up with this virus as it changes, through serial waves and new variants, and to
I doubt it will involve tunnelling under the wall and fake travel documents, but the 2022 Great Hamster Escape is apparently underway in Hong Kong. It’s not surprising, following the recent heavy-handed over-reaction to finding SARS-CoV-2 in a small number of hamsters, and the attempted blame-shifting (COVID-19? No, we don’t have any of that
As someone who works in zoonotic diseases and One Health, I deal with the ever-present issue of trying to raise awareness while preventing people from over-reacting, panicking or doing something stupid. It can be tough, since we want people to realize that animal-to-human transmission of infections is an important issue, but don’t want them huddling
As I keep going through these updates, some are pretty easy since we’ve learned little since I originally wrote them last year. For cattle, that’s largely because the initial take home message was “they’re not susceptible to SARS-CoV-2, so mooove on.”
That’s not a completely accurate assessment since “susceptible” isn’t really yes/no distinction in
Here’s one that’s pretty easy to update because we don’t know much more than when I posted the original review. That’s partly because it’s not exactly easy to get data on exposure and infection of marine mammals with SARS-CoV-2. I assume no one’s going to do an experimental study on such animals, and we
Zoonotic diseases from pet fish are very rare, but rare doesn’t mean never. That can make messaging around the disease risks from pet fish challenging, because there’s a need to balance costs vs benefits, and being proactive vs paranoid.
I have a saltwater fish aquarium, and I don’t stay up at night worrying that it’s
