Animal «reservoirs» may pose a risk to humans down the road.
Cats and dogs may eventually need their own COVID-19 vaccines to prevent the coronavirus from evolving further and «spilling» back to humans, according to one group of researchers. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is known to infect a number of animals besides humans, including cats, dogs, minks, tigers and gorillas. However, at this time, scientists don’t think animals play a significant role in spreading the virus to people, and reports of COVID-19 in pets are rare, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Still, the authors of a new editorial, published Jan.25 in the journal Virulence, say that these animal «reservoirs» may pose a risk to humans down the road, because there is the potential for the virus to evolve in those species and spread back to people. «The risk is that, as long as there are these reservoirs, that it starts to pass… from animal to animal, and then starts to evolve animal-specific strains,» Kevin Tyler, editor-in-chief of Virulence and co-author of the editorial, told the wire service PA Media.
