Canine SARS-CoV-2 infection

Abstract

Abstract SARS-CoV-2 emerged in Wuhan in December 2019 and has caused the pandemic respiratory disease, COVID-19. Following what is presumed to be an initial zoonotic transmission event, the virus is now spreading efficient in humans. Very little is known about the susceptibility of domestic mammals kept as pets to this virus. Samples were collected over a 13-day period from a 17 year-old neutered male Pomeranian in Hong Kong SA that was taken into isolation after two members of the household tested positive for the virus. Nasal swabs were consistently positive on the five occasions the dog was tested using quantitative RT- PCR with viral loads between 7.5xE2 to 2.6 x10E4 RNA copies per mL of sample. The dog remained asymptomatic. Cultures attempted on three RT-PCR positive nasal samples were negative. Gene sequences from samples from two household members were identical. The viral sequence from the dog differed at three nucleotide positions; two of these resulted in amino acid changes but their significance is yet to be determined. Seroconversion was not detected but this was expected given the asymptomatic infection and low virus load. The evidence suggests that this is an instance of human-to-animal transmission of SARS-COV-2. It is likely that we could see similar events in other infected households. We do not have information yet on whether this virus can cause illness in dogs but no specific signs were seen in this dog. Whether infected dogs could transmit the virus to other animals or back to humans remains unknown. In this case it did not appear to have occurred.