I said I’d probably stop reporting on individual animal cases if they’re just repeating what we know. So, I hesitated on this one but there’s an interesting timing component to this most recent feline case that’s worth discussing.
SARS-CoV-2 was identified in a cat with respiratory disease in Minnesota. The owners were infected first,
The SARS-CoV-2 situation in the Dutch mink industry continues to evolve. Dutch authorities are now reporting outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2 on 8 mink farms (with one more suspected), as part of their broader investigation of the industry. After identifying outbreaks on multiple mink farms, the infection was declared a reportable disease national surveillance was initiated, including
The USDA has issued announced the first confirmed case of SARS-CoV-2 infection in dog in the US. The affected dog was a German Shepherd from New York state, and unsurprisingly its owner had COVID-19. Interestingly, this dog did have signs of respiratory disease, a finding that hasn’t been reported in dogs to date. It tested
A new experimental study of SARS-CoV-2 in cats (Bosco-Lauth et al. 2020, available in pre-print on bioRxiv) re-inforces information from earlier studies and provides some important new insights. The standard disclaimer that the information is from a pre-print (non-peer-reviewed) source applies, but the science seems pretty sound.
For this study, seven adult
As SARS-CoV-2 reminded everyone, there are lots of undiscovered viruses out there, and some of them can cause disease in humans, animals, or both. It’s not very hard to find a new virus, actually. Figuring out what it means is often the challenge, because simply finding a virus in a sick person or animal doesn’t
A few quick updates on some recent SARS-CoV-2-related stories.
North Carolina dog: Positive result not confirmed
This case, a pug in North Carolina that had an oral swab that supposedly tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 as part of a Duke University household surveillance study, was reported a few weeks ago. It was strange that there
I wrote about issues with N95 respirators with exhalation valves the other day, and decided to do a quick demonstration of the concerns.
Exhalation valves on some N95 masks are designed to make it easier to breathe out, because these one-way valves release exhaled air without forcing it through a filter.
One concept that we’ve recommended for COVID-19 control in veterinary clinics is staff cohorting. That involves keeping staff groups together to limit the risk of transmission should someone be infected. If groups (i.e. shifts, or teams that stick together and don’t interact with others) are formed, any single infected person would have contact with a
As described by ProMedMail, the Dutch Agriculture Minister has provided another update on the outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2 that have affected at least 5 mink farms in the Netherlands to date (click here for the original Dutch version of the letter).
Another suspected mink-to-human transmission of SARS-CoV-2 has been identified (with potentially infections
COVID-19 derailed our plans for some backyard chicken work (e.g. research and education) this spring, but the emergence of COVID-19 doesn’t mean all other infectious disease issues have disappeared. Some problems will be reduced by the precautions put in place to control COVID-19, but other problems may actually get worse. Backyard chickens continue to be
