Do animals transmit corona to humans?
Shaaban Bilal (Cairo) There are still fears among many about the fact that animals are infected with the emerging corona virus, especially after the death of a nine-year-old Asian lioness after being infected with the virus in a zoo on the outskirts of the city of Chennai in southern India, in an incident that may not be the first of its kind. its kind. Virus researcher at the Veterinary Serum and Vaccine Research Institute in Egypt, Dr. Alaa El-Khouly, said that it has been scientifically proven that the new Corona virus infection has been transmitted to animals since the beginning of the pandemic, explaining that there are cases of cats and dogs in more than one country, in addition to other infections among lions, tigers and gorillas. He pointed out to Al-Ittihad that laboratory experiments confirmed the transmission of infection from human to animal, but it has not yet been proven that the virus is transmitted from animal to human, explaining that there are many facts of transmission of the virus from people to animals they own. On the most prominent animals vulnerable to infection with the virus, he stressed that cats, dogs, lions, tigers and gorillas are the most affected, with evidence of the emergence of many cases in several countries, especially China, India and Japan, indicating that no clinical symptoms appeared in many cases that were infected with the virus. Since the beginning of the virus, many cases of corona have been detected in animals, including two white tiger cubs believed to have died of Covid-19 infection in neighboring Pakistan and lions who tested positive in Spain and two other cities in India. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a small number of pets, including cats and dogs, have been infected with the Corona virus, explaining that this mostly happened after the animals came into close contact with people infected with the virus. According to the Egyptian researcher, it does not appear that animals play an important role in spreading the virus, and there is no evidence that viruses can be transmitted to humans or other animals from the skin, fur or hair of pets.