A Tiger with the Coronavirus: What Does this Mean for Pets?
As most people have heard by now, a four-year-old tiger named Nadia was recently diagnosed with the coronavirus at the Bronx Zoo. Her diagnosis came after she, as well as other animals near her, started showing signs of the virus.
This discovery has prompted all kinds of questions. How did the tiger get it (especially since people automatically tend to social distance from man-eating beasts)? Can other cats get it? What about dogs? Can they transmit it to us?
The Coronavirus in Cats
The most pressing question for pet owners, of course, is whether or not their pets can get it. As we’ve previously discussed, most vets had agreed that they couldn’t. But the infected tiger changes the game, at least to some degree.
This doesn’t mean you need to grab your tabby and take it to urgent care and hope it’ll comply with a nasal swab. First of all, tigers and cats might both be felines, but they’re not the same – housecats are in a separate genus. And tigers are worlds away from dogs.
Still, there was a cat that may have contracted the virus in Belgium, though it wasn’t an open and shut case. This shoulder shrugging is similar to the dogs that have also tested positive – vets aren’t sure if they were truly infected or if low levels of the virus lived on their fur and noses and that was enough to cause a positive result. But, with a tiger now positive, it does seem more likely that the domesticated animals were truly positive, particularly because of their close contact with infected humans.
Can my pet give the virus to me?
While many of us are truly animal lovers, the health of the tiger isn’t our only concern: we are worried about ourselves too. In short, can our pets give us their cooties?
It’s true that the origin of the virus came from eating animals, so “contact” with an animal is what got us started with this whole mess. But outside of that, there is no proof that domestic pets can transmit the virus (odds are high that you’re not eating your poodle).
Yes, the pets that have possibly become infected were in close contact with infected humans, making it possible that person to animal exposure occurred. But the opposite hasn’t proven true.
Even the tiger likely got the virus from an infected zoo worker. But no one’s totally sure how the other animals that might have the virus became infected. Maybe from the zoo worker and maybe from each other.
The moral of the story is that the coronavirus and the transmission between humans and animals is a bit murky. If it is possible to get the virus from your cat or dog, it’s exceedingly rare. So is human to animal transmission (or else we’d be seeing many more infected pets). Yet if you’re sick with the virus, it’s best to have someone else watch your furry friends until you’re better. And, just to play it safe, don’t hang out with any tigers……ever.
JJ Keeler lives in Colorado with a house full of pets. She owns three dogs, two cats, and a hamster she bought as a bribe to get her daughter to ride the school bus. She has a BA in English Literature from the University of Colorado and has worked as a professional writer for fifteen years. Her clothes are perpetually covered in pet hair.
