The risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission to pets and other wild and domestic animals strongly mandates a one-health strategy to control the COVID-19 pandemic

Infection with the new coronavirus, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), termed coronavirus infectious disease 19 (COVID-19), came to the attention of health workers in December 2019 when a cluster of people who attended the seafood and animal market in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China presented with a severe respiratory illness [1,2]. The outbreak, first localized to Wuhan, quickly spread to neighbouring provinces and within three months was declared a pandemic, with cases reported in nearly 200 countries in all regions of the world. As of 8 April 2020, the pandemic has been resulted in over one million four hundred thousand confirmed cases and over 76, 000 deaths, including over 655,000 cases and 51, 000 deaths in Europe. While China has not registered new cases for several days, parts of western Europe have become the foci of the COVID-19 pandemic. The close association between humans and their pets has led to an examination of the potential risks of transmission. Viral RNA has been detected in two dogs and two cats, belonging to SARS-CoV-2 infected owners, in Hong Kong and Liège, Belgium. While pale in comparison with the scale of infection in the human population, these observations have nonetheless provoked many violent reactions towards dogs and cats. More recently, National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) of the US the Animal and Plant Health Inspection service (APHIS) in Ames, Iowa confirmed that a female Malayan Tiger at the Bronx zoo had positive RT-PCR for SARS-CoV2. Bronx Zoo veterinarians confirmed that the Malayan tiger, her sister, two Amur tigers, and three African Lions had developed a dray cough [3]. The objective of this note is to inventory the risks of SARS-CoV-2 contamination of pets, especially dogs and cats, by their owners, and the potential role of pets in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 2. Discovery of two dogs and two cats testing positive for SARSCoV-2