There are birds, horses, mice, dogs and even whales reported as coronavirus natural hosts. There is really a zoo of animal hosts reported for this class of viruses. Coronaviruses present a “severe global health threat,” write researchers from Wuhan University and Sun Yat-sen University in the Journal of Medical Virology. The viruses aren’t new, nor do they infect only people. According to the veterinarian literature that is illustrated in the infographic above, the coronaviruses already also cause: they produce Birds: Respiratory tract infection Cows: Diarrhea Cats: Fever and Vasculitis Dogs: Diarrhea Horses: Fever and Anorexia Mice: Severe Lung Injury Pigs: Diarrhea Whales: Lung and Liver diseases (alphabetical order) The list is vast and includes wild animals, but also farm animals and even pets as coronavirus natural hosts.
Oh wait, pets? So, do I need to quarantine my plon espesyal loved dog/cat? Hold on… there other types of coronaviruses, we are not talking specifically about coronavirus Covid-19 in this case. Other types of coronaviruses affect the animals listed above. They are not necessarily host of the Covid-19. And, the topic is still controversial, but you don’t need to treat your pet as a focus of coronavirus infection.
Regarding the current coronavirus Covid-19, responsible for the global respiratory disease outbreak, some researchers believe it may have been introduced to humankind by the bats. Some species spread coronaviruses without becoming sick, like the camels that carry Middle-East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-Cov), also caused by virus of the coronavirus class. MERS-CoV is also eventually found in sheeps, goats and donkeys. For the Covid-19, it happened to be the bats.