Pets may need to be vaccinated against Covid-19 to curb the spread of the virus, a group of scientists has said. Coronavirus can infect a wide range of species including cats, dogs, mink and other domesticated species, experts from the University of East Anglia (UEA), Norwich-based research facility the Earlham Institute and University of Minnesota have said.
In an editorial for the journal Virulence, they wrote that continued evolution of the virus in animals followed by transmission to humans “poses a significant long-term risk to public health”. “It is not unthinkable that vaccination of some domesticated animal species might… be necessary to curb the spread of the infection,” they said.