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Altering Earth’s natural systems not only spreads disease to humans. Ecosystem disruption increasingly puts wild animals at risk of devastating pandemics and threatens endangered species’ survival.
COVID-19 and Animals A novel coronavirus that was first reported in China in December 2019 quickly led to a global pandemic. Named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus causes COVID-19 in humans and has subsequently devastated economies and healthcare systems worldwide. Large cats are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2. Image Credit: Milkovasa / Shutterstock.com Whilst highly contagious between humans, current evidence regarding transmission between animals and humans suggests that animals do not play a significant role in spreading the infection. However, more resea...
Two-way transmission on mink farms Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a zoonotic virus—one that spilled over from another species to infect and transmit among humans. We know that humans can infect other animals with SARS-CoV-2, such as domestic cats and even tigers in zoos. Oude Munnink et al. used whole-genome sequencing to show that SARS-CoV-2 infections were rife among mink farms in the southeastern Netherlands, all of which are destined to be closed by March 2021 (see the Perspective by Zhou and Shi). Toward the end of June 2020, 68% of mink farm workers t...