Last week, Purdue University released an article about a research review focused on “unanswered questions” about how COVID-19 affects domestic dogs. According to the article, at the pandemic’s onset researchers doubted whether COVID could infect dogs. As a result, there’s an unfortunate—and sizable—data gap about canine transmissibility. At the time, researchers like Mohit Verma believed dogs were resistant to COVID.
“As the virus evolved,” said Verma, “… there seem to be more instances of potentially asymptomatic dogs.” Notably, Verma said these instances could also be due to increased “surveillance technology.” As a result, Verma—an assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering—along with Mohamed Kamel and two others, led a review of current literature pertaining to COVID in dogs. Aptly named “Interactions Between Humans and Dogs in the COVID-19 Pandemic,” their study was recently published in the journal Animal.
How has COVID affected dogs?
In the study, researchers claimed that 75% of infectious diseases in humans come from animals. Considering that researchers are concerned that dogs could serve as “reservoirs for the virus,” fueling future outbreaks. Surprisingly, the review found that over two dozen animal species have contracted COVID-19. Among these are cats, dogs, rabbits, deer, and even gorillas. Unfortunately, researchers still don’t understand how susceptible dogs are to COVID because of infrequent testing, said Kamel.
“Compared to cats or other animals, the susceptibility is less,” said Kamel. Regardless, COVID’s rapid mutations make long-term predictions difficult. Significantly, canine COVID resistance could be partly due to low levels of the angiotensin enzyme. Because of this, cells in the lungs lack these receptors, which COVID also uses to infect these same cells.
Thankfully, dogs have also helped combat COVID
Since the study focused on all interactions between COVID and dogs, some of the review’s findings relate less to infections and transmission. Notably, researchers also explored how detection dogs have become a vital tool in the fight to contain COVID.
Yet, in their conclusion researchers said that these dogs have not been as accurate as antigen tests. Interestingly, other scientists have presented contradictory results. In Rwanda, for example, researchers have found that dogs are more accurate and consistent than diagnostic tests.
Concludingly, researchers said, “Future studies should continue to examine the human–canine interface and how pandemics affect this relationship.” Such studies, they say, will help further our understanding of how living in close quarters affects dogs and humans.
