A new review argues that not enough research study has actually analyzed the implications of animals obtaining SARS-CoV-2.
An evaluation in the journal Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Illness argues that scientists have actually not performed enough research study on the role that animals play in the COVID-19 pandemic.
The authors of the brand-new review recommend that animals could play an essential role in the transmission of the virus, that contaminated animals might impact food security, which service animals that count on their sense of smell might no longer be able to perform this function if they obtain the infection.
Although researchers now widely accept that SARS-CoV-2 transferred to people from animals by means of an intermediary animal host, they know much less about the role of animals in relation to the pandemic as it spreads out across the world.
So far, researchers have conducted little research study to check out:
- to what extent animals can contract the virus
- which animals are most vulnerable to infection
- whether or not animals can send the infection to each other
- whether or not animals can transmit the infection to people
- what impact the infection has on animals
In the lack of this evidence, public health bodies around the world have actually normally minimized the function of animals in sending the infection.
For instance, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say that “[b] ased on the limited info readily available to date, the threat of animals spreading COVID-19 to individuals is considered to be low.”
However, review co-author Prof. Tracey McNamara– from the Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, CA– and colleagues argue that “[a] bsence of evidence is not the same thing as evidence of absence.”
According to Prof. McNamara and group: “In the immediacy of the COVID-19 crisis, the focus has actually not surprisingly been on human health. We have ignored the opposite side of the coin of emerging zoonotic disease risks– the anim