First Confirmed Case Of Monkeypox Transmission From Human To Dog
Via IFLScience:
The Lancet reports that the two human patients had indeed been careful to isolate their dog from other pets and humans as soon as their own [monkeypox] symptoms came on – but they continued letting the pet sleep in their bed. Two weeks later, the four-year-old greyhound developed the tell-tale lesions of the virus across its belly and anus, and a PCR test confirmed the presence of monkeypox.
DNA analysis of the monkeypox virus strains found in the dog and one of its humans showed 100 percent sequence homology – meaning they were almost certainly related to each other – and both were examples of the hMPXV-1 clade, lineage B.1. That’s the subtype which has been spreading across Europe and the US since April, and in Paris, where the dog and owners live, has infected close to 2,000 people.
“To the best of our knowledge, the kinetics of symptom onset in both patients and, subsequently, in their dog suggest human-to-dog transmission of monkeypox virus,” notes the case report.
“Given the dog’s skin and mucosal lesions as well as the positive monkeypox virus PCR results from anal and oral swabs, we hypothesize a real canine disease, not a simple carriage of the virus by close contact with humans or airborne transmission.”
In other words, the possibility of monkeypox in pets needs to be treated as a potentially serious disease, and the authors reiterate the importance of isolating animals from monkeypox-infected people.
[Lancet]
