The APDT Chronicle of the Dog Summer 2020 | Page 40

FEATURE | WHAT DOG TRAINERS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT COVID-19
Necessity, it’s been said, is the mother of invention. All of a sudden,
we have to change the way we work in order to survive, not just
as individuals, but as business owners. All but a few states have
issued “stay-at-home” orders for non-essential businesses, and we
find ourselves grappling with how to best serve our clients, preserve
our businesses, and stay well. Hopefully by the time you read this
in June, some of those “stay-at-home” mandates will be lifted when
the number of COVID-19 cases decline.
Amid the hysteria, media hype, and continually changing Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines, questions
arise about the transmission of this new virus between animals
and people as well as between people. How can we best protect
ourselves? Do we need to worry about the spread of coronavirus
between dogs or between dogs and people?
BACKGROUND
Human coronaviruses: When we speak of the coronavirus,
we’re actually talking about a group of viruses. Coronaviruses
affect both animals and humans. In humans, they may cause
the common cold as well as the new, more deadly COVID-19,
Coronavirus Disease 2019. The virus that causes COVID-19,
SARS-CoV2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2)
tends to affect the lower part of the respiratory tract, whereas the
common cold primarily affects the upper respiratory tract – the
nose, throat, sinuses, and larynx.
The SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 is believed to have
“jumped” species from bats to humans by way of intermediate hosts
such as camels and civet cats.
Dog and cat coronaviruses: Coronaviruses also affect dogs, cats,
and other mammals and birds. Feline coronavirus (FCoV) takes
two forms. One form causes mild enteritis, but a mutation of the
virus causes Feline Infectious Peritonitis, FIP, which is associated
with a high mortality rate. FIP tends to emerge in cats under stress,
for example, during sheltering or transportation, which leads to
depression of the immune system. Likewise, canine coronavirus
(CCoV) also causes enteritis, and tends to affect dogs housed in
shelters, kennels, and breeding facilities.
According to Niels Pedersen, DVM, Ph.D., writing for the UC Davis
School of Veterinary Medicine online newsletter, coronaviruses are
very species-specific, and cross-species transmission is uncommon.
He writes, “There is no evidence that coronaviruses of our common
veterinary species have entered humans in the recent past or vice
versa. However, the tendency for coronaviruses to jump species is
an ongoing occurrence and it is possible that a coronavirus from
a common pet species such as a cat or dog may enter humans and
cause disease sometime in the future. However, if it should ever
humanize, it will no longer be a cat or dog virus, but rather a new
human virus. The same is true for a coronavirus of humans that
decides to change their host species.”
The American Veterinary Medical Association
(AVMA) states there is no reason at this time to
remove dogs or cats from the home of an individual
who has tested positive for the virus. If there is
someone else to care for the pet so that the infected
person has minimal contact, that’s the ideal.
COVID-19 causes many people to become mildly or moderately ill
but poses a risk of life-threatening illness for people 60 and older
and those with underlying health conditions, particularly of the
lungs, heart, and immune system. People who become critically ill
experience respiratory failure and require mechanical ventilation
for breathing support and oxygenation. The machines used to
provide this support are called ventilators, not to be confused with
respirators, a term used to refer to N95 masks.
There are seven types of coronaviruses in humans. Four of these
types or variants cause the common cold, and the remaining three
cause more serious illnesses: Middle East Respiratory Syndromerelated
Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and those that cause SARS
(severe acute respiratory syndrome), SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2.
The Chinese wet markets: As has been
widely publicized, the current pandemic
started in Wuhan, China. At first it was
believed to have originated in the wet or
wild animal market there, but that origin
is being questioned since some patients
diagnosed with the coronavirus have denied
exposure to the market. In January, the
month after the outbreak started, China
temporarily banned the breeding and
trading of wild animals. This isn’t the first
time a coronavirus outbreak has been traced
to a wet market in China. The 2002-2004
outbreak of SARS was traced to a wet market in the Chinese
province of Guangdong. This resulted in temporary ban of wet
markets and the wild animal industry that was lifted months later
when the World Health Organization declared the virus contained.
One positive outcome of this pandemic that has infected more than
2.665 million people worldwide and resulted in more than 186,000
deaths (as of mid-April) is the reclassification of dogs as pets. In
April of this year, the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Affairs announced that dogs, previously considered livestock, were
being reclassified as pets, meaning they can no longer be bred for
food, fur, or medicine.
Transmission from people to animals: The CDC has received
few reports of pets in the United States becoming infected with
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