Don't panic, pet owners told

Pet owners were told yesterday not to panic over a pet dog being confirmed to have contracted Covid-19 - the world's first known human-to-canine transmission of the virus, though it is a "low-level infection."

This came on a day when there was no rise in the number of confirmed human cases - it remained at 104 - and one probable.

The latest positive diagnosis was on Wednesday night. That was a woman who returned from India two weeks ago.

On the canine case, the assistant director of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, Thomas Sit Hon-chung, said two dogs and a cat from households of confirmed virus patients are in quarantine.

But only a 17-year-old Pomeranian owned by Covid-19 patient and horse owner Yvonne Chow Hau-yee tested positive for the coronavirus.

Sit said it was the first such discovery anywhere, and he believed it was a one-off case. But SAR authorities had notified the World Organisation for Animal Health on the finding.

"Pet owners should not panic as the dog did not get sick due to the infection," he said. "We also found the virus load to be very low. In fact, we saw the amount of virus dropping over the past few days, meaning the dog is recovering by itself."

Asked how authorities arrived at the Covid-19 finding in the dog, Sit said the animal tested positive repeatedly from different samples taken over the previous six days.

"Dogs have a self-cleaning mechanism that secrets mucus in the mouth and nasal cavities," he said. "If it was only contamination after it licked something carrying the coronavirus it wouldn't have tested positive for so many days. Therefore, we believe it's infected and the virus is in the body."

He added: "It's likely a case of a human passing the coronavirus to a dog. Sometimes animals infect humans and sometimes it's the other way around.

"There are no previous examples or evidence showing the virus can jump from dogs to humans."

The next step was to run blood tests on the dog to see if it carried antibodies against the coronavirus, he said. If yes, then lab technicians would attempt to incubate the coronavirus from the dog and compare it with those from Chow to see if they have the same genetic sequence.

Sit also said pet owners needed to be vigilant and step up hygiene.

After touching pets or taking them out, people needed to clean themselves thoroughly.

Likewise the pet, he said. And "owners should prevent dogs from licking around."

But there was no need to mask a dog, Sit added. That would prevent dogs from cooling down by using their tongues because they have no sweat glands.

Sit recalled that during the SARS outbreak in 2003 eight cats and a dog from infected households in Amoy Gardens in Kowloon Bay tested positive for the virus but showed no symptoms. And all recovered by themselves.

Infectious disease expert Ho Pak-leung from the University of Hong Kong said Covid-19 typically transmits between mammals, meaning it was possible for a human to pass the coronavirus to pets like cats and dogs.

However, it is unlikely animals can infect each other due to their cell structures, which are different to those of humans.

On the latest confirmed human case, the person involved is a 69-year-old woman who was in Mumbai in western India between January 31 and February 24.

She went on the trip in a self-formed group with 20 others, including a Canadian friend who acted as a tour guide.

The woman, who lives with her husband and a helper in Villa Lotto in Happy Valley, returned to Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific flight CX694 on February 24.

Chuang Shuk-kwan, the Centre for Health Protection's head of its communicable disease unit, said the woman had various symptoms, and chest scans showed signs of pneumonia.

Since her symptoms began in India, she has been listed as an imported case.

The 20 people who were in the same group were being traced, and the woman's husband and the helper were in quarantine.