CONSIDER VACCINES FOR ANIMALS, SAY SCIENTISTS

Cats and dogs should receive specially developed coronavirus vaccines to stop the emergence of any new mutant strains, scientists have said.

Coronavirus can infect a wide range of species including cats, dogs, mink and other domesticated species, according to experts from the Earlham Institute, the University of East Anglia's (UEA) Norwich-based research facility, and University of Minnesota.

In an editorial for the journal Virulence, they wrote that continued evolution of the virus in animals, followed by transmission to humans, “poses a significant long-term risk to public health. It is not unthinkable that vaccination of some domesticated animal species might ... be necessary to curb the spread of the infection,” they said.

Last year, Denmark's government culled millions of mink after it emerged that hundreds of COVID-19 cases in the country were linked with coronavirus variants associated with farmed mink.

Cock van Oosterhout, professor of evolutionary genetics at UEA, said dogs and cats can contract coronavirus but there are no known cases in which there has been “spill back” to humans.

“We really need to be prepared for any eventuality when it comes to COVID,” he said. “I think the best way to do this is consider development of vaccines for animals as well. Interestingly, the Russians have already started to develop a vaccine for pets which there's very little information about.”