FabSwingers.com forum: Pets & Covid : New Study

By *oubleswing2019 OP Man
over a year ago

Colchester

I wondered if this would raise its head again.

BBC News : Pets can catch Covid from owners, study suggests. By Jim Reed, Health Reporter (1.7.21)

Swabs were taken from 310 pets from 196 covid-positive households.

6 cats returned a positive PCR test.

6 dogs returned a positive PCR test.

54 animals tested positive for virus antibodies.

The authors of the study said no evidence of pet-to-owner transmission had been recorded to date but it would be difficult to detect while the virus was still spreading easily between humans.

I'm not surprised since we are informed it's a zoonotic virus that jumped from bats to humans. Whilst not empirical, it does suggest that if cats/dogs can acquire it, it seems to be a mammalian disease and thus lends some weight to the mammalian origin.

Has anyone on FAB noticed anything covid-related with dear Tiddles or Rover ?

If there was an animal vaccine for covid, would your get your loved pets vaccinated in the same way you do for other vaccinations they regularly have ?

When you go out for walkies and socially distance, do strangers acknowledge that, then ignore you and try and stroke the dog ? (Never a good idea for other reasons !). Is this a potential vector that is not being well-considered ? Should it be ?

If approx.. 20% of the animals in the study had covid-symptoms, what's the take home from that from a public and also private health perspective ? They are family so you'd want to protect them in the same way as human offspring and do the best you can for them, I assume ?

[Disclaimer : Not a pet owner and ambivalent towards them as individual beings. Overall, not keen on animal captivity, be it zoo’s or otherwise, but that has no bearing on the study itself]

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By *ophieslutTV/TS
over a year ago

Central

It would be more of an issue if we had the goal of eradicating the virus or it was causing serious problems for the animals and others. It probably needs more research though, to increase the evidence that we have on the impacts. Sadly, the animals can't speak, so we're unable to hear from them, should they want to tell us about any lasting problems

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By *mmixtapeCouple
over a year ago

middle earth

I'm surprised it's taken this long to find it out tbh.

Thankfully out little rover is reactive to other dogs, so I get an excuse to shout at people to stay the f away.

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By *issusWoman
over a year ago

Belfast

I meet hundreds of people daily due to my work. Pet their cats and dogs too!

It's a miracle that I'm still alive. Nevermind the fact that I haven't even had a sniffle since last year...

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By *rFunBoyMan
over a year ago

Longridge

Think we are missing the point!

Human to Animal back to Human massively increases the chances of a serious and devestating mutation to occur.

Swine and Bird Flu culls are for two reasons, stop spread to other farms but mostly to reduce mutation risk.

This is why Mink was culled in Denmark and other countries for fear of this pathway.

A mutation from a Mink farm did get into Human population but was contained on the farm by locking workers in.

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By *issusWoman
over a year ago

Belfast

"Think we are missing the point!

Human to Animal back to Human massively increases the chances of a serious and devestating mutation to occur.

Swine and Bird Flu culls are for two reasons, stop spread to other farms but mostly to reduce mutation risk.

This is why Mink was culled in Denmark and other countries for fear of this pathway.

A mutation from a Mink farm did get into Human population but was contained on the farm by locking workers in."

But... you're double vaxed just as most of the older and younger vulnerable population.

That's as much as you can do to protect yourself. Not others. Yourself.

You can't spend the rest of your life worrying what if some Olga's from Belarus cat has developed a variant (virus is global. It will remain global no matter how many people in UK will get double jabbed. We just have to learn to live with it.)

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By *naswingdressWoman
over a year ago

Manchester (she/her)

"Think we are missing the point!

Human to Animal back to Human massively increases the chances of a serious and devestating mutation to occur.

Swine and Bird Flu culls are for two reasons, stop spread to other farms but mostly to reduce mutation risk.

This is why Mink was culled in Denmark and other countries for fear of this pathway.

A mutation from a Mink farm did get into Human population but was contained on the farm by locking workers in."

Yes, spillover events are the worry

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

Just out of curiosity what does a positive PCR test mean ? As far as I’m aware it means absolutely nothing without a vital culture being done, even the school kids have proven that with lemon juice. I’m a dog owner, and all round animal lover, animals are no different to humans, you give them a good healthy diet, ie none of the processed canned sh1te, plenty of excercise and they’ll live a long happy life, oh and keep your pets away from the vaccines that the vet would tell you are needed, that’s my philosophy and I’m sticking to it.

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By *naswingdressWoman
over a year ago

Manchester (she/her)

"Just out of curiosity what does a positive PCR test mean ? As far as I’m aware it means absolutely nothing without a vital culture being done, even the school kids have proven that with lemon juice. I’m a dog owner, and all round animal lover, animals are no different to humans, you give them a good healthy diet, ie none of the processed canned sh1te, plenty of excercise and they’ll live a long happy life, oh and keep your pets away from the vaccines that the vet would tell you are needed, that’s my philosophy and I’m sticking to it. "

A positive PCR test means that a certain level of Covid has been found in the sample.

While some school students have attempted to game the system using lateral flow tests (which are not PCR tests), this does not mean that tests are nonsense.

It's a bit like the old game of creationists testing stuff without carbon to prove that the earth is only a few thousand years old. You do tests improperly, they'll return bad results.

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

The PCR test might find the virus is was looking for, this results in PCR positive, but a crucial question remains, is this virus active, ie infectious. Or virulent ?. The PCR test alone cannot answer this question, this is why viral culturing is needed to answer this question.

Source, Centre For Evidence-Based Medicine, Oxford University

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By *naswingdressWoman
over a year ago

Manchester (she/her)

"The PCR test might find the virus is was looking for, this results in PCR positive, but a crucial question remains, is this virus active, ie infectious. Or virulent ?. The PCR test alone cannot answer this question, this is why viral culturing is needed to answer this question.

Source, Centre For Evidence-Based Medicine, Oxford University

The PCR requires reference points, as studied in the paper you're referring to. That doesn't mean it's worthless - and it doesn't mean said reference points don't exist. I don't know what they are in the UK, but I know they exist in the US, and I know that much has been made of high cycle thresholds as some sort of proof that PCR is worthless. It's not a yes/no question.

Do you know the difference between PCR and LFT, or are you just spouting stuff you read to try to prove a point?

What does this - or even school kids trying to get a day off school with a different test - got to do with zoonotic transmission?

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By *ittleMissCaliWoman
over a year ago

all loved up

"I wondered if this would raise its head again.

BBC News : Pets can catch Covid from owners, study suggests. By Jim Reed, Health Reporter (1.7.21)

Swabs were taken from 310 pets from 196 covid-positive households.

6 cats returned a positive PCR test.

6 dogs returned a positive PCR test.

54 animals tested positive for virus antibodies.

The authors of the study said no evidence of pet-to-owner transmission had been recorded to date but it would be difficult to detect while the virus was still spreading easily between humans.

Has anyone on FAB noticed anything covid-related with dear Tiddles or Rover ?

If there was an animal vaccine for covid, would your get your loved pets vaccinated in the same way you do for other vaccinations they regularly have ?

[Disclaimer : Not a pet owner and ambivalent towards them as individual beings. Overall, not keen on animal captivity, be it zoo’s or otherwise, but that has no bearing on the study itself]

If the covid vaccine became one of the many my cats had to have then yes I would include them in their annual vaccines

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By *oubleswing2019 OP Man
over a year ago

Colchester

An interesting range of thoughts, thank you folks. I definitely feel ongoing research is critical in this field, especially when we have the means to catch an animal variant, that could re-enter the human population.

I guess mutations gotta mutate.

Wishing your "fur-babies" all the best.

Random thought...is there a market for Kleenex for Cats and Dogs, I wonder ?

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