A pet dog in North Carolina tested positive for the coronavirus—possibly the first dog in the US to be infected with COVID-19.
Three members of the McClean family—Sam McClean, wife Heather and their son, Ben—contracted COVID-19 last month. Sydney McClean, the couple's daughter, was the only family member to never show any symptoms.
Owner of the dog, Heather McLean, a hospital paediatrician and vice chair and associate at Duke University, hopes the diagnosis does not spark much concern about household pets contracting and spreading the disease.
The dog, named Winston, was tested positive after the family participated in a Duke University study about COVID-19 that aimed at trying to find potential treatments and vaccines.
According to McClean’s 17-year-old daughter, the dog did not show any symptoms before he was tested positive, but was coughing a lot one morning and didn’t eat his breakfast.
Chris Woods, the principal investigator of the study, was quoted by CNN as saying that researchers have also been collecting samples from family pets to see how coronavirus spreads in households.
And while many animals were not tested during the study, only this pug’s sample came positive among the pets tested. Commercial tests meant for humans, which are highly in demand, were not used for testing animals for the study.
The researchers are not sure whether coronavirus made Winston sick, or if he had an unrelated ailment.
The McCleans have another dog and a cat, whose tests were negative.
Dr Anthony Fauci, top infectious disease specialist in the US, said last week, “there is no evidence whatsoever that we've seen, from an epidemiological standpoint, that pets can be transmitters within the household”.
