The World Health Organisation (WHO) has confirmed the possibility of transmission of COVID-19 from human beings to animals like dogs, cats, tigers etc. The WHO representative to Russia Melita Vujnovic made the statement on April 5. She said that COVID-19 normally transmits between humans but new evidence has proved human to animal transmission.
“The Covid-19 virus spreads mainly through human-to-human transmission, but there is evidence of human-to-animal transmission as it is a zoonotic virus,” said Vujnovic in an interview.
The WHO representative also said that an “intermediate host” has not yet been identified.
“Several animals — minks, dogs, domestic cats, lions, tigers and raccoon dogs — who have come into contact with infected people, have tested positive for Covid-19. The process of studying the effect of the virus on other species of animals is underway,” Vujnovic added.
The head of the WHO team of international experts on March 30 had said that its investigation in Wuhan to find the origins of novel coronavirus had uncovered new information but not changed the picture of the outbreak.
Peter Ben Embarek, a Swiss food safety scientist who lead the WHO team of experts visiting Wuhan, said in a press briefing that the coronavirus is ‘unlikely’ to have leaked from a Chinese lab. He further added that it is more likely to have jumped to humans from an animal. After the crucial investigatory visit to China’s city, Wuhan, where the coronavirus case was first reported in December 2019, Embarek assessed the ‘most likely’ pathway through an intermediary host species.
Russia registers first vaccine against Covid for animals
On the other hand, world’s first animal vaccine against the novel coronavirus has been registered in Russia, said the country’s agriculture safety watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor.
The immunity lasts for six months after the vaccination, but the dose’s developers are continuing to analyse this.
“All test animals that were vaccinated developed antibodies to coronavirus in 100 percent of cases,” said Konstantin Savenkov, deputy head of Rosselkhoznadzor. “It is the world’s first and only product for preventing Covid-19 in animals.”
