Can your pet get COVID-19?

NEW YORK (AP) — Can your pet get COVID-19?

Yes, pets and different animals can get the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, however well being officers say the danger of them spreading it to folks is low.

Dogs, cats, ferrets, rabbits, otters, hyenas and white-tailed deer are among the many animals which have examined constructive, normally after contracting it from contaminated folks.

While you don’t have to fret a lot about getting COVID-19 from your pets, they need to fear about getting it from you. People with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 ought to keep away from contact with pets, cattle and wildlife, in addition to with different folks, in line with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“If you wouldn’t go near another person because you’re sick or you might be exposed, don’t go near another animal,” says Dr. Scott Weese at Ontario Veterinary College.

Not all contaminated pets get sick and critical sickness is extraordinarily uncommon. Pets that present signs sometimes get mildly unwell, the CDC says.

Some zoos within the U.S. and elsewhere have vaccinated massive cats, primates and different animals which are considered vulnerable to getting the virus via contact with folks.

This explicit coronavirus most definitely jumped from animals to people within the first place, sparking a pandemic as a result of the virus spreads so simply between folks. But it doesn’t simply unfold from animals to folks. Minks are the one identified animals to have caught the virus from folks and unfold it again, in line with Weese.

Three nations in northern Europe recorded circumstances of the virus spreading from folks to mink on mink farms. The virus circulated among the many animals earlier than being handed again to farmworkers.

How simply animals can get and unfold the virus would possibly change with completely different variants, and one of the simplest ways to stop the virus from spreading amongst animals is to manage it amongst folks, Weese says.

By EMMA H. TOBIN, The Associated Press