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Assuming virus structure doesn't change inside pets, why pet to human transmission is not possible? Shouldn't it be very likely? You've a virus which can go fr

Assuming virus structure doesn't change inside pets, why pet to human transmission is not possible? Shouldn't it be very likely? You've a virus which can go from humans to pets and reverse, why? Any other virus where it's proven to be only one way street?

dehrmann 7y ago
Could be an old theory, but the popular theory was it transferred from bats to humans, so yeah, this will probably happen. What this case doesn't say if it's readily transmissible between cats or between cats and humans. For all we know, people get viruses from other species all the time, the virus doesn't transmit well, so it stops there.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
crispyporkbites 7y ago
No. Viruses from humans cannot be carried by dogs or other pets, except in very extreme cases. Stastically speaking it doesn’t happen and it’s not something to worry about.
- balnaphone 7y ago
  Rabies, influenzas, haemorrhagic fevers, West Nile, coronaviruses, and Zika might like to have a word with you on the subject.
  - crispyporkbites 7y ago
    Rabies is one of millions of viruses, it’s very very rare for a new virus to jump from one host species to another new species. Covid 19 already jumped from bats to people, it would need to mutate again to survive in a pet and spread via that vector.
    - peatmoss 7y ago
      Rabies is one of many viruses, but one of relatively few that cause disease in humans. From the NY Times the other day: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/24/science/viruses-coranavirus-biology.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/24/science/viruses-coranavir...
    - thaumasiotes 7y ago
      > Covid 19 already jumped from bats to people, it would need to mutate again to survive in a pet and spread via that vector. I don't see it as unreasonable to think that if it can cross from one mammal to another mammal, that makes it more likely to be able to cross to a third mammal. To make the crossing from bats to humans, it has to be doing something that works in both bats and humans, exploiting some feature that is common to both. But a feature common to bats and humans is much more likely to be also shared with dogs than a feature that humans have and bats don't. This is the same principle that tells us that while it's rare for a virus to cross from infecting bats to infecting humans, it's much, much rarer for one to cross from infecting grasshoppers to infecting humans.
      - Zancarius 7y ago
        There's an interesting manuscript (caveat emptor) I found related to this[1] that states: "2019-nCoV RBD likely recognizes ACE2 from pigs, ferrets, cats, orangutans, monkeys and humans with similar efficiency, because these ACE2 molecules are identical or similar in the critical virus-binding residues." Not being a biologist or virologist, I don't know how true this is, but it may suggest this incident with the cat did in fact happen. [1] https://jvi.asm.org/content/jvi/early/2020/01/23/JVI.00127-20.full.pdf https://jvi.asm.org/content/jvi/early/2020/01/23/JVI.00127-2...
- Mountain_Skies 7y ago
  Wonder how long the virus can survive on the fur of a pet. This is very different than the animal being infected and becoming a production factory for a virus but if we're being cautious about spreading the virus through contact with shared objects, pets seem like they could be a vector for a period of time. Perhaps a day or two?
  - etiam 7y ago
    The observation is sound. And also note that pets may be much more likely than (adult) humans to go into contact with some things and areas contaminated by saliva. As for the stability, unless fur is more hostile than plastic or stainless steel, detectable viable virus at 72 hours is indicated in this recent article by van Doremalen et al. https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMc2004973 https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMc2004973 Experience from other coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV, shows even longer persistence for some surfaces and environmental conditions. Please see Table I in Kampf et al. this January https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-6701(20)30046-3/abstract https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-670...
parsimo2010 7y ago
Even if the virus is transferable between species, pets aren’t a particularly worrying vector. Most pets only have contact with a few humans, and those humans usually already have contact with each other. Places like kennels and dog parks can increase the pet to pet transmission, but if a city locks down then those opportunities decrease as well. So worrying about pets won’t change any of our current approaches.
- mettamage 7y ago
  How about Istanbul? Loads of street cats there.
  - parsimo2010 7y ago
    Street cats and most other feral animals in a city don’t have a lot of contact with humans, otherwise they get captured. Even with people leaving food out for them they do their own social distancing pretty well. You nearly need a death cult trying to get the disease before feral animals are a big enough problem to direct policy.
    - slightwinder 7y ago
      Is capturing even a thing in Istanbul? AFAIK they maintain a very friendly relationship between humans and cats.

dehrmann 7y ago

Could be an old theory, but the popular theory was it transferred from bats to humans, so yeah, this will probably happen. What this case doesn't say if it's readily transmissible between cats or between cats and humans. For all we know, people get viruses from other species all the time, the virus doesn't transmit well, so it stops there.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

crispyporkbites 7y ago

No. Viruses from humans cannot be carried by dogs or other pets, except in very extreme cases. Stastically speaking it doesn’t happen and it’s not something to worry about.

balnaphone 7y ago
Rabies, influenzas, haemorrhagic fevers, West Nile, coronaviruses, and Zika might like to have a word with you on the subject.
- crispyporkbites 7y ago
  Rabies is one of millions of viruses, it’s very very rare for a new virus to jump from one host species to another new species. Covid 19 already jumped from bats to people, it would need to mutate again to survive in a pet and spread via that vector.
  - peatmoss 7y ago
    Rabies is one of many viruses, but one of relatively few that cause disease in humans. From the NY Times the other day: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/24/science/viruses-coranavirus-biology.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/24/science/viruses-coranavir...
  - thaumasiotes 7y ago
    > Covid 19 already jumped from bats to people, it would need to mutate again to survive in a pet and spread via that vector. I don't see it as unreasonable to think that if it can cross from one mammal to another mammal, that makes it more likely to be able to cross to a third mammal. To make the crossing from bats to humans, it has to be doing something that works in both bats and humans, exploiting some feature that is common to both. But a feature common to bats and humans is much more likely to be also shared with dogs than a feature that humans have and bats don't. This is the same principle that tells us that while it's rare for a virus to cross from infecting bats to infecting humans, it's much, much rarer for one to cross from infecting grasshoppers to infecting humans.
    - Zancarius 7y ago
      There's an interesting manuscript (caveat emptor) I found related to this[1] that states: "2019-nCoV RBD likely recognizes ACE2 from pigs, ferrets, cats, orangutans, monkeys and humans with similar efficiency, because these ACE2 molecules are identical or similar in the critical virus-binding residues." Not being a biologist or virologist, I don't know how true this is, but it may suggest this incident with the cat did in fact happen. [1] https://jvi.asm.org/content/jvi/early/2020/01/23/JVI.00127-20.full.pdf https://jvi.asm.org/content/jvi/early/2020/01/23/JVI.00127-2...
Mountain_Skies 7y ago
Wonder how long the virus can survive on the fur of a pet. This is very different than the animal being infected and becoming a production factory for a virus but if we're being cautious about spreading the virus through contact with shared objects, pets seem like they could be a vector for a period of time. Perhaps a day or two?
- etiam 7y ago
  The observation is sound. And also note that pets may be much more likely than (adult) humans to go into contact with some things and areas contaminated by saliva. As for the stability, unless fur is more hostile than plastic or stainless steel, detectable viable virus at 72 hours is indicated in this recent article by van Doremalen et al. https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMc2004973 https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMc2004973 Experience from other coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV, shows even longer persistence for some surfaces and environmental conditions. Please see Table I in Kampf et al. this January https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-6701(20)30046-3/abstract https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-670...

parsimo2010 7y ago

Even if the virus is transferable between species, pets aren’t a particularly worrying vector. Most pets only have contact with a few humans, and those humans usually already have contact with each other. Places like kennels and dog parks can increase the pet to pet transmission, but if a city locks down then those opportunities decrease as well. So worrying about pets won’t change any of our current approaches.

mettamage 7y ago
How about Istanbul? Loads of street cats there.
- parsimo2010 7y ago
  Street cats and most other feral animals in a city don’t have a lot of contact with humans, otherwise they get captured. Even with people leaving food out for them they do their own social distancing pretty well. You nearly need a death cult trying to get the disease before feral animals are a big enough problem to direct policy.
  - slightwinder 7y ago
    Is capturing even a thing in Istanbul? AFAIK they maintain a very friendly relationship between humans and cats.