Studies show that pets get Covid 19 through their owners. A vaccine is in the works.

By Natalie Shipp – 6th grade

In February 2020, a strange case of covid was soon brought to light. A 17 year old Pomeranian in Hong Kong tested positive for the coronavirus. Other cases in cats and dogs and many pets soon popped up. Since then, scientists have been researching more  about how the virus can spread from people to animals during close contact. 

Malik Peiris, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong who ran the operation, suspected that the disease had been passed from the owners to their pets. Although there are no known cases of the disease spreading from pets to humans. The CDC even acknowledges that the higher risk of transmission is from humans to pets, as it states on its website.Technically, a pet vaccine is manageable. In fact, many research teams say that they have already set in motion promising cat or dog vaccines. But there is a critical need to test more animals that are in close contact with people, such as working animals and livestock. To this day  at the zoo animals are receiving vaccines and covid tests. According to Dr Els Broens,  “about one quarter of pets will catch the disease from their owners,”  and, “luckily, the animals do not get very ill from it”, she adds.