The possibility has been there for months. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that, in a few cases, pets such as cats and dogs have been infected with COVID-19 after having contact with their infected owners.
Now, the director of the Mexico-United States Commission for the Prevention of Foot-and-Mouth Disease and other Exotic Diseases of Animals of the National Service for Agrifood Health, Safety and Quality (SENASICA), Roberto Navarro, confirmed to Milenio TV what is documented three cases of infections to dogs in Mexico.
Two of them are in CDMX and one in the State of Mexico.
The specialist made it clear that dogs have been victims of sick people, and that they are not considered risky due to their ability to transmit the disease to humans. The CDC themselves confirm when they assure that the probability of contagion from animals to humans is “baja“.
—
Previously, cases of infections to dogs, cats and even tigers have been documented.
There are already protocols to find positive animals
There has been 25 suspicion notifications of animals with COVID-19 to the department headed by Navarro, where 16 are dogs, eight cats and a Bengal tiger. Of the total, COVID-19 has only been confirmed in three dogs, for which PCR tests were used. The states where the rest of the suspected cases are found are Morelos, Jalisco, Veracruz, Baja California, Chiapas, Hidalgo, Nayarit, Oaxaca, Querétaro and Yucatán.
“Neither dogs nor cats play a role in the maintenance and dissemination of viruses and, as the World Health Organization has mentioned, rather they are victims of some rapprochement with their owners who may have been infected; that animals in turn are transmitting the disease, this has not been proven “
Roberto Navarro
The investigation with the positive cases will continue. It will be allowed weeks and then they will be serological tests to know if they have developed any antibodies. Navarro also called on pet owners so that, if they test positive for COVID-19, they remain isolated from both their family and their pets.
In Denmark, 15 million minks were euthanized last August after a SARS CoV-2 mutation was detected.
